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Back Yard 

and 









City Lot Gardening ( 



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A Book Especially 
Adapted to Texas 

PRICE 25 CENTS 

Copyrighted by 

W. M. TEAL 



Palacios, Texas 
1917 



Back Yard 

and 

City Lot Gardening 



A Practical Book 
by a Practical Man 



Copjrrighted by 

W. M. TEAL 

Palacios, Texas 
1917 






T^ 



PREFACE 

People everywhere are trying to cut down the high 
cost of living. In this book I hope you will find it prac- 
tical as suggested by using wasted time on wasted space 
every one may find a great deal of information in this. 
book on such lines as will be of great value to those 
trying to interest themselves in such work. 

Growing a living at home is practical and it is hoped 
and begin the most fascinating study and work in the 
world, that of plant industry. 

Some of the suggestions how to interest the boys and 
girls after school hours to help provide a living for the 
family, how to use every inch of ground about your 
place to grow something useful on, how to have health 
and how to economize by using wholesome foods should 
appeal to every thinking person. 

A lot of experiment'ng and careful study has been 
done to get all the information in one small book, that 
any one may succeed with a home garden and orchard 
and that the price might be in reach of all. 



If you wish to help others help themselves 
will you not write at least a few post cards to 
those who might be interested in such work 
and call their attention to this book and where 
it can be gotten or place a few copies in the 
hands of those who need it. Also call the at- 
tention nf club leaders, editors, teachers, and 
city officials who might assist in getting it in- 
to the hands of the i^eople everywhere. 

PRICE 25c POSTPAID 

Address all Orders to 

,^ Palacios: Texas 

OCU4G2106 Q^ 

R. F. D. 4, Dallas, Texas 

— 2 — 




APR 25 1917 >V0 



^ City Lot Gardening 

r~ — 

^ The editors of some of the leading magazijies have 

torn their hair aaid spent large sums of money trying 

sto solve the problem o'f fhe high cost o'f living. Many 

c'f their theories are fine and "worthy of study, but come 

r^Jar short of a satisfactory solution . I propose to solve 

^the problem in a most practical way by using wasted 

^time on wasted space. There is plenty of information 

on gardening, bat it would require so much time and 

trouble with days of research of various publicutions to 

:get what you need, it is of little practical value to the 

:amateur gardner. Personal experience is what most 

people are interested in these days, so this book is 

largely based on my own experience and not theories of 

writers. 

A GardeJi For Every Home, 

The matter of supplying necessary food for the 
human body has always been and necessarily must al- 
ways be a question of the highest importance. "'In the 
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." In other words, 
he who eats must work. A journal of National fame is 
authority for the statement that one-third of the world 
feeds the other two-thirds. This carries us hack to the 
farm, the source of all our food supplies. 

Not only thousands of families, but hundreds of 
thousands in our cities cannot afford to buy any but the 
absolute necessities of life. Fruits and fresh vegetables, 
except in very small quantities and at long intervals, are 
beyond their reach. The economical and thrifty are al- 
ways rewarded and just how these may be able to enjoy 
their share is the object of this book. 

Sufficient to say that the man or woman who has 
a few feet of unoccupied ground about his place should 
get busy at once in preparing it for Garden Vegetables. 
If you are an ameteur gardener, just try a few of the 
more commonly cultivated vegetables the first year. 
Every home should have its garden and every home 
owner should have his orchard as well. After much 
experimenting I believe it is safe to say one-third of the 
grocery bill for the average family can be eliminated 

— 3— 



Ik 

on the products of one city lot. And the work can be 
done at odd times when not engaged in the regular daily 
routine affairs. 

Utilization of Waste Space. 

Under intelligent intensive cultivation the possibili- 
ties of a small garden are truly wonderful. I have 
traveled in Italy, France and Egypt where a man is 
counted fortunate if he owns a few square feet of ground 
on which to grow a living. He uses every inch to grow 
something on. Many grow more than a living for their 
family and have a surplus for sale. If you have only a 
few square feet, that is enough to start with. Spade 
it up now, and get it ready. You will be astonished at 
the amount of nice home grown vegetables to be had 
off a small space. 

Billie Minter of Austin, who took the premium in 
1915 is said to have grown 573 pounds, or thirty-two 
dollars worth on 10 x 20 feet — the rate of six thousand 
dollars per acre. Many homes can find much more 
space which can be so utilized and every inch should be 
made to produce something useful, either in ornamental 
or edible vegetables, which looks better than grass and 
weeds. 

Wasted Profits. 

It is estimated that San Antonio has 8,000 acres of 
land in vacant city lots going to waste, when it might 
be made to produce over forty-million dollars worth of 
vegetables by intensive intelligent cultivation. Just 
think of this enormous waste that might be conserved 
and made to solve the food problem for one city at least. 
May it not solve the food problem for others, as well? 

Wasted Time. 

A few minutes each morning before breakfast or 
in the afternoon after business hours will be sufficient 
to till your back yard garden and supply your table 
with most of the ordinary vegetables in season. If you 
have a larger lot, interest your children in helping to 
make a living for the family. They have much time 
after school hours which could be directed in this way 
and the results would be of great value to the family. 

— 4 — 



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Pin Money For the Boy or Gii-1.. 

Vegetables will always sell readily in the city to 
people who do not raise them. The work is light and 
pleasant, and it starts the boy or girl on the road to 
prosperity. Children's habits are early formed, and there 
is no better way for them to start a bank account. Teach 
them some of the practical things in life as you go 
along, and doubtless they will be more practical when 
grown. 
For the Young Man or Lady. 

It matters not what you are or what your profession, 
select a good lot, set it out in fruit trees and interest 
yourself in them. While your trees are growing your 
lot is increasing in value. Only a small amount of cul- 
tivation is necessary, and in a few years you will be 
proud of a nice orchard and a place to erect a home on 
where living will be worth while. 

Recreation For the Business Man. 

Diversion is recreation for the city worker, be his 
vocation what it may. The close contact with nature 
which the cultivation of the soil gives, insures not only 
physi'cal and mental pleasure, but phycical and mental 
health as well. Both the importance of the food ques- 
tion and the response it gets from his own little garden 
give a pleasing diversion to his every-day duties. Entirely 
unlike and yet superior to many of the amusements 
usually sought by the man in the city. You cannot 
estimate how much longer you will live by getting out 
a little each day and really tiring your muscles by doing 
some real manual labor. Your brain would be clearer, 
and you would not need the usual summer vacation. I 
know some business men who are worth all sorts of 
money, whose little back yard gardens are their greatest 
delight — their "hobby," and every man needs a "hobby" 
to take his mind off his business occasionally. Try it for 
a change. 

Vegetables For Health. 

Many people think they must have meat every day. 
It has been demonstrated time and again that the veg- 
etarian has more endurance and better health than the 
meat eater, and that vegetables are just as nutritious 
as meat. With the exception of milk, butter and eggs, 

— 6— 




THE YOUTHFUL. GARDENERS. 




Eariiig pin money by selling vegetables. 



little meat is needed. In this day of high prices and 
high cost of living people cannot overlook the fact that 
vegetables come much cheaper than meats, and many 
times so when raised at home on your own yard and 
garden. 

Personally speaking, I believe a diet of say two- 
thirds vegetables and fruit would very nearly do away 
with so many dreadful operations, and would greatly 
lighten the labors of the physicians. 

Several years back I was effected like many of to- 
day. I had billious spells, headaches, frequent colds, 
with coaiea tongue, inc simple life on a diet of veg- 
taken no medicine of any kind for several years. I feel 
etables and fruit has done away with it all. I have 
[ have a new lease on life and fear none of the dreadful 
operations or large doctor bills that so many have 
to meet. The only thing that hurts me is that millions 
of others who put their trust in medicines will not do as 
[ have done — get close to nature and live in reality and 
not in dread as so many do. When you have health and 
know how to take care of it by correct living, there is 
happiness in such a life. Live on plain simple foods and 
leave off so much sweet stuff, pastries, etc^it will put 
you in an early grave. 

The value of vegetables in the diet is a great deal 
more than the mere food or money value, as they furnish 
a large part of the essential salts which are essential to 
the well-being of the human system. 

Mr. Floyd Star, who is at the head of an institution 
In Michigan which takes boys out of reformatories and 
provides work for them on a farm, recently made the 
statement that by reason of the simple life which they 
live, no physician has ever been needed to attend any 
one in the institution during its three years of existence. 
Try a garden one year and experiment to know for 
yourself. 

Small Farms vs. the City Garden. 

So many city people long to get out on a five or 
ten acre tract, and many purchase with that aim in view. 
This usually is a serious mistake. You would not be able 
to hold a position in the city, nor would you have suf- 
ficient knowledge and experience to make a success on 
the farm. You can make a success gardening in the 

—8— 




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Mrs. Henry Pietsoh's garden, Dallas, Texas. Place 
was purcliased in August, a garden 15\20 feet, was ar- 
ranged at once. She lias lettuce, onions, turnips, ajid 
radishes, after two freezes. This view was taken Dec- 
ember 7tli. Garden is on black land. 




SALMON BROWN 

Last surviving son of John Brov,ii who went to the 
scaffold in 1859 because of his convictions on the sub- 
ject of slavery. Now 80 years old, lives near Portland, 
Oregon. 



ci'fy because you experiment '!n a small way and" leara 
how. You have water for irrigation in the city, ancE 
your location is ideal for disposing of your surplus 
products to the neighbors. Then those who are accus- 
tomed to the city would not enjoy the loneliness of the 
farm. One or two lots well fertilized and cultivated will 
give you all the farm work yon will liftely care to dov 
When you have read farm journals and experimented on 
lots for a few years,, then you could undertake larger 
things with suecesa. 

Cultivating a Taste For Vegetables, 

When city people raise their vegetables at home, 
they will be eaten with a relish. Shipped vegetables 
are very poor in quality compared with those plucked 
fresh from the garden, and for this reason, the taste 
for vegetables is not cultivated as it should be, especially 
with children. Agai'n, shipped vegetables come so 
h-gh that city people are forced to eat things less 
expensive. N'otwithstanding the high cost of shipped 
vegetables, by the time the wagon man, the commission 
man, the express company get what is coming to them, 
you must surely pay dear for eating such products. 
Why not save all this by putting your own little garden 
spot to work? 

Food Crops For the Fanner. 

Inconsistent as it may appear for any farmer to have 
to buy any staple article that can be produced on the 
farm, it is a well known fact that farmers have centered 
their energies upon the production of cotton and 
neglected to raise enough corn, potatoes, meat, eggs, 
milk, butter, and vegetables to supply their families. 

That farmers have to live out of t-n cans and paper 
bags from the city is an appalling fact. He is the one 
who should fill them. Traveling around over the 
country as I do and being interested in such work, I 
naturally take notice of every potato hill, turnip patch, 
garden, and orchard. I am so surprised to see so many 
farmers who do not have these luxuries. . The man who 
has plenty to eat is the man who ra'ses it at home. It 
makes me sick at heart to see so many people who have 
nothing to eat only as they go to the grocery for their 
daily supply and then pay two prices because of the 

— 10 — ! 





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small quantify in wliicii it is bouglif. Wake up to your 
opportunity in this day of high prices and high cost of 
living, change your plans and see how soon you will be 
rewarded with the kind of living that is worth while. 

WIio is at Fault? 

What do the public school graduates know about 
the science of agriculture, horticulture, or plant indus- 
try? Our schools are lacking in that they teach every- 
thing else except the most practical things of life. Child- 
ren grow up to be interested in that which they are 
tausrht, and that is why so few are 'nteres»ted in home 
gardening; they know nothing about it. I believe 
the day is not far distant when all such will not only be 
taught by theory but by actual demonstration. Text- 
h'lok teaching alrne cannot make a practical farmer or 
gardener any more than it could make a blacksmith, a 
carpenter, or sho-3maker. And by su>;h education, farm 
w^rk is be-'ng looked down on and our country being 
robbed of "ts best boys and gir'.s. They are seeking a 
p^ace in the already crowded cities. If fathers and 
mothers would educate their children in agricultural 
and industrial schools, the cities would have little fas- 
cination for them. 

Most always it's a sad day for the young man or 
young woman* who leaves the opportunities of the coun- 
try for the c'ty, though they seldom realize it until 
years of experience. They know not the struggles that 
come to the average city dweller for existence. Stay 
with the farm if you would be independent and happy. 
I wish to say to every man who has a family and farm; 
before you sell it and move to town or city, or if you 
are contemplating such, go in and look up some of the 
unfortunates who are working by the day to exist, who 
have lost all and you will count yourself • fortunate to 
own a home in the country and be more content to stay 
with it. I have met them, not a few, and it hurts me to 
see a man 40 or 50 years old who has lost out and can't 
even go back where he so much longs to be free again, 
on a good old farm of his own. 

My Experience With Poor L.and. 

In order that people might not say I had any advan- 
tage in growing stuff, I selected the most unproductive 

— 12 — 



soil I could find. Through thorough cultivation and 
application of barnyard fertilizer, I raise more vegetables 
and fruit on four city lots than some others raise on as 
many acres. 

Except for a very few items I could close my door 
to the commercial world and live were it necessary. 
Besides a bountiful supply of onions, lettuce, tomatoes, 
corn, peas, beans, beets, cushaws, cantal^^upes, pumpk'ns, 
and fruits of all kinds. I housed one season 30 bushels 
of sweet potatoes, 125 gallons kraut, fanned over one 
hundred jars fruit and vegetables, stored away several 
bushels of turnips and Irish potatoes. At this time I 
have canned goods nearly two years old which are used 
when needed between seasons. 

The Book 

My sole aim in putting out this book is not to see 
how much I can write on the different phases of the 
work, but that you may get enough information in a few 
pages to start you out and for you to be successful 
with a home garden. Write for Bulletins and good farm 
papers for more detailed information on any particular 
lines or on all lines, as for that. Reading such will soon 
make you an enthusiast on such work. 

Preparation of Soil. 

In countries where there is sufficient freeze to kill 
the grass, turn the land before the freeze, and let it lie 
until early spring. Then work it over again and go 
dOAvn as deep as possible with spade or plow. If you 
are in the rainy belt, thorough drainage means much. 
Make the ground into beds six or eight feet across and 
prit ditches from the end of your beds to the alleyway, 
then to the street, so as to carry the water away rapidly 
in case of long heavy rains. Large beds hold moisture 
in dry weather equally as well as flat land, and plants 
will not thrive in soggy land. If your land has bten 
soured from water standing on it, broadcast a liberal 
supply of lime over it before working it up. The deeper 
you work your land, the better stuff you will grow. Go 
down eight to twelve inches is possible. Never work 
your ground wet; it kills the land. 

Bermuda and Johnson Grass. 

Bermuda sod is easily gotten rid of if instructions 
are followed, otherwise you only set it out. Turn 1: 

—13— 



with a two horse ploy, (this applies in Southern climates 
more particularly) very deep, four to six inches, and turn 
it completely bottom side up. Then harrow down about 
two inches not disturbing the sod, so as to fill the cracks 
between the furrows and to make a loose mulch to plant 
seed in. This shuts down the grass air tight. It soon 
rots either in dry or rainy weather, if the top is green. 
When your plants are good size, you can work on down 
deeper. The sod will be rotten if the grass was green 
when turned. Plow up Johnson grass and keep it cut 
down continually; the roots do not spread If the top is 
not allowed to spread. 

If your plot is too small to plow, spade it up with 
a sharp spade, cutting the grass and dirt fine, work it 
all down in the ground so as to ventilate and fertilize 
the land, rake off the top good with rake after spading 
is done. Plant seed, begin to work as soon as stuff 
comes up to keep the grass out. It requires more work 
in this way to keep the grass down and to kill it out. 
In either method keep going down deeper every working 
as the plants get larger. 

Fertilizers.. 

Barnyard fertilizers are best if put on the ground 
broadcast early in the winter and plowed or harrowed 
in, and it is almost impossible to put on too much. Cow 
pen manure doesn't burn so badly and may be applied 
in the spring. Poultry manure is fine. You can usually 
get all you want from your neighbor just for the hauling 
of it. You can also rake up leaves, hay, and trash and 
let it rot. There is nothing better than this. Sow cow 
peas in the fall and turn them under when in full bloom 
and you will see a great improvement in the soil next 
season. Pea vines are rich in nitrogen which is an ab- 
solute necessity to most plant life. Black land pro- 
duces well without fertilizer, but there is little danger 
of getting it too rich. Sandy soil needs fertilizer in 
iabundance, but do not try to do it all in one year. It is 
better to apply some every year, so as not to fire the 
plants. If you cannot get barnyard fertilizer, you can 
use commercial fertilizer to good advantage, though it 
does not last so well. Have the German Kali Works, 
of New Orleans, send you their pamphlet on truck farm- 
ing. The agricultural department of the A. & M. College 

. ; ) ; i . J , —14— 



at College Station, Texas, will also send you pamphlets, 
showing the fertilizers needed for different soils. 

What to Plant. 

Conditions and circumstances largely determine 
what to plant. If your space is small, plantings must 
be limited to those vegetables which produce a large 
amount of edible products for the space occupied, such 
as lettuce, okra, radishes, beans, tomatoes, onions, and 
Irish potatoes. If your space is larger, you can add cab- 
bage, sweet potatoes, cantaloupes, corn, etc. Sweet 
potatoes do well on sod land the first year, and require 
very little work, if the land is well prepared. Peas can 
be sown after most other crops are gathered, and they 
make in dry weather when other things fail. They are 
also f ne for the land. I have yet to see the place where 
fruit and vegetables will not grow, if the varieties 
adapted to that locality are used. I have heard it said 
that sweet potatoes would not grow on black land, and 
yet I saw twelve bushels raised the past year on a space 
•'O X .50 feet of as black, waxy land as you can find. The 
reason so few people succeed raising either Irish or 
sweet potatoes on black land is they do not break the 
land deep enough. Merely turning it three or four 
inches will not raise fine potatoes. Then black land 
needs increased vegetable matter in it for truck farm- 
ing. 

When and How. 

Early vegetables are most profitable, and in order 
CO have them early, secure boxes or cheese hoops, which 
ran be easily handled. Fill with rich soil from the fence 
corners, or take one part sand and one part rich dirt 
and one part well rotted manure, and mix well. About 
five weeks before planting time in the garden, sow 
your seed in the boxes, such as lettuce, tomatoes, cab- 
bage, and beets. Set the boxes on the South side of 
the house in warm weather, or put inside by a window 
v/here they can get the sunshine a part of the day. A 
good plan is to make a bed on the south side of some 
building and cover with one or two window sash, sloping 
the sash so as to turn the rain, or cheese cloth. As soon 
as the frost is over, transplant to beds in the garden. 
In this way you can have plants coming on all the time, 
so as to grow several crops in one season, which you 

"—15— 



cannot do where you take time to germinate the seed 
in the garden. After your garden truck is all gathered, 
you can make a fall garden of Bermuda onions, turnips, 
spinach, etc., and the onions especially will be fine the 
next spring. 

Tools For Gardening. 

A good spading fork, a crooked digging fork is bet- 
ter for sandy soil, easier to use and more rapid work 
can be done. A good hoe, rake, and straight spade or 
shovel are all the tools required. A sprinkler, trowel, 
garden plow and dibble are helpful tools. 

Two or More Crops, 

It is even possible to grow two or more crops at 
the same time. For such select a short season, and a 
long season crop. For example, lettuce and radishes, 
lettuce and carrots, lettuce and onions, may be planted 
In rows between other long season stuff. When you 
have stuff coming off early, put out long season stuff 
between the rows and one or two weeks can be saved in 
this way. When you have plants in boxes or beds ready 
to put out at any time as you remove stuff of any kind 
fill in the space. Dcn't let any ground be idle; therein 
lies the success of a gardener with little space. Study 
how to follow up with later season stuff all the time as 
you remove your stuff. For the last crop in the summer 
you can plant peas, black-eyed, Crowder or some other 
variety. They will grow and make in the dry hot sum- 
mer months and at the same time improve your land. 
When peas are left on the land for the last crop it is 
much easier put in shape for the fall garden, as it is 
usually dry at the time the land should be prepared. 
The peas shade the land and help to keep it from getting 
so hard. 

Transplanting. 

Before drawing plants for transplanting, dampen 
your bed, so as not to break the small tender rootlets. 
Select the place to set your plants in the garden and 
make a small hole with a paddle or hoe and pour in 
water if the ground is not already wet. When the water 
soaks in, set your plant in the mud and press the soil 
well around the roots of the plant. Rake some dry dirt 

—16— 



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around it, so the ground will not bake. Put out as 
late in the evening as possible. In transplanting very 
small plants use a case knife and take up some soil with 
the plant and don't disturb the roots. 

Work shallow but frequently. The dust mulch holds 
the moisture. Stir the ground after each rain, and your 
ground will not form a crust or get hard. 

Sweet Potatoes. 

Bed out some good variety; the Pumpkin Yam is 
the sweetest and easiest to cook of most all varieties. 
The Vineless Yam is not nearly so good. Mr. C. L. Kidd, 
Teague, Texas, has the real Pumpkin Yam for sale; 
about the last of February. Best to put the bed on the 
south side of some building. Throw up the dirt two or 
three inches for drainage. Put down a layer of potatoes, 
cover with soil at least one inch or deeper. Better in 
colder climates to put six inches of dry stable manure 
under them to heat the ground. Keep dampened in dry 
weather and covered in bad, cold spells. When slips 
are large enough to transplant, prepare your land fresh 
and put in rows 2 1-2 to 3 feet wide, 18 inches in the 
drill. When the vines of the first planting begin run- 
ning, cut off and set out as slips. They make smoother 
potatoes, and are freer from potato weevils. You can 
set out very late in the spring and make potatoes. Break 
the ground as deep as possible for potatoes. Dig when 
the leaves turn brown; don't let the frost kill the vines, 
it hurts the keeping quality of the potato. Handle so as 
not to bruise or skin them. Bed up some dirt near the 
house, lay planks down, if in rainy climate spread hay 
on the planks, pile up the potatoes on the bed. Throw 
hay on them, stand cornstalks on boards around the hill, 
leaving an air hole six inches in the south side for ven- 
tilation, cover over with dirt to keep them from freezing. 
Pack something in the hole in cold weather. In rainy 
climates, better to cover the hills with boards. In this 
way I have potatoes almost the year around. In very cold 
climates spread papers over the hill before putting on 
the dirt. This keeps out the air. 

Oiiions. 

Plant multiplying sets for early use only. Ber- 
mudas are unequaled as they are sweet and grow most 
anywhere if properly handled. Plant the small onions 

— 18 — 



for quick growth in the spring. Sow seed in a broad 
bed in November in the warmer climates. When six 
inches high; transplant as any other plants five inches 
apart about December or January. You will have fine, 
smooth onions in March or April. Young plants will go 
through a good deal of freeze and come on early in the 
spring. See Hastings, Atlanta, Ga., for seed and book 
on growing them. No table should be without a good 
supply of fresh Bermuda onions in season. Other varie- 
ties are better for keeping after the season is over. In 
the fall in South Texas you can put them out after pota- 
toes are removed from the land. Further north they 
should be transplanted early so as to have good roots 
before freezing weather. They vi^lll stand hard freezes 
if put out early. Every garden can have onions the 
year around if properly handled. The hose should be 
used in the dry summer months to keep them growing. 
£t is important to take the dirt from around them when 
they begin to bowl. Keep the ground well pulverized. 
Onions will not grow well on hard ground. Onions are 
considered very healthful and a good preventive of many 
ills. Make it a point to grow them both wint(>x and 
summer. 

Irish Potatoes. 

Prepare the land well by ploughing or spading very 
deep. Put very little barn yard manure next to the 
potatoes, it causes warts on them. Enrich the land with 
well rotted manure. Plant in rows two or three feet 
wide, eight to ten inches apart in the row. Cut the 
potatoes into four parts rf large, two parts if small. The 
larger the pieces the better the young vines will grow 
off. Plant very early, about February or first of March. 
Cover very deep and rake off when time for them to 
come up. When six to eight inches high, broadcast 
leaves and straw or manure and straw over the ground 
if you have it, to hold the moisture. For fall crop plant 
last of August or first of September. Small striped bugs 
frequently bother the vines. A ten cent package of 
*' Par's green mixed with seven parts of flour and a little 
slacked lime will kill them if dusted on of mornings 
when the dew is on. Get the best varieties suited tc 
your sec.ttion of the country. 

—19— 



Squashes. 

There are a number of good varieties. Plant after 
the weather is warm. Make hills three or four feet 
apart, cover two inches deep, thin out to two plants 
when good size. Use tobacco dust on all vegetables to 
be cooked, when bugs or worms are bothering them. 

Turnips. 

Turnjips are easily grown if the land is rich. Turnips 
have a large amount of food value. For fall use, spade 
or plow the ground up in August, even if dry. Harrow 
or rake well to pulverize. Best to sow your seed in nar- 
row rows and work well to make large turnips. Thin as 
they grow for greens to two or three feet apart. Sow 
just before a shower if possible. Rake the seed in 
or harrow if a large plot. Throw loose hay over the 
ground for them to come through, the sun gradually 
hardens them so they don't die out so badly. Sow later 
for wiinter use. By having a bed early and using the 
hay and sprinkling every day very early greens can be 
had. White Egg and Flat Dutch are good varieties for 
early use. Purple top for later use. Everybody should 
raise Rutabagas for winter use, stand the cold better and 
are sweeter and better for late winter use. Sow very 
early in the fall, they grow slow, in rows and thin to 
four Inches apart. 

Okra. 

Okra will grow almost anywhere. If you will pour 
water around it every day or so, two stalk is all one 
family will need. It will grow all summer ^if watered 
and all the old pods should be kept cut off. In the fence 
corner or any old place about the yard will do for okra. 
The stalks will spread and often grow ten feet high in 
a season, producing some four hundred pods each. Learn 
to eat okra, it /is healthful and easily grown. 

Corn. 

Plant sweet corn as soon as the weather is warm, 
make successive plantings for later use until July. Plant 
in rows three feet wide, thick in the row, when five 
inches high thin to a stalk every twelve or fourteen 
inches. Remove all suckers from the base of stalks, 

— 20 — 



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cover about two inches deep. For larg^cr and later 
corn, Stowell's Evergreen or the Indran squaw corn is 
a most satisfactory variety, almost as sweet as the sweet 
corn. 

Cabbage. 

Too few people realize the value of cabbage, when 
properly cooked or when used raw. Grow your plants 
in the house in boxes early. Sow the seed in the latter 
part of January, for the colder climates. In the Gulf 
coast country you should put out plants all alone in the 
late fall and early spring. They stand through the 
w'nter with rare exceptions. Put out where other stuff 
is being removed, about fifteen inches apart. Land 
must be very rich for cabbage. In climates where the 
thermometer goes down as low as zero; order the hardy 
frost proof plants, from Hastings & Cb., Atlanta, Ga., 
and put out in January, they stand the freezes and you 
will have very early cabbage in the cold cVmates. Very 
few know this can be done in North Texas. The plants 
are grown out doors on the At'.antic coast and are very 
much hardened. The small sharp head is usually best 
for all purposes. Grow cabbage and put them up into 
sour-kraut. Use stone jar or keg, chop the cabbage fine 
put in layer of salt and layer of cabbage, press down very 
tight, so the Ir'quid will rise. Put plates or cover on the 
kraut with weights on it to keep it below the liquid. 
A few coriander or juniper berr'es add to the flavor. 
Place rn a dry cool place, tie a good covpr over the top 
of the barrel. At the end of a few days it will begin to 
ferment, draw this water from the top with the scum 
and replace with some fresh water. This should be done 
every day until the liquid becomes clear. Renew the 
cloth and wash the cover, put the wefghts back and let 
stand for a month, then it is ready for use. Care must 
be taken to let the least possible air enter it. Keep the 
lid clean and well closed every time any is taken out. 
Keep the liquid above the plate on which the weights 
rest. 

Collards. 

Old fashioned Georgia collards can be put out in 
the late spring. They will grow on through the summer 
and fall. After frost and freezes when all other greens 
are gone they are very sweet and delicious. Put out in 
rich soil, as cabbage. 

— 22 — 



English Peas. 

Peas will stand a good deal of frost and should 
t»e planted early, about the time for planting potatoes, in 
Pebruary or first of March in the North Texas climate. 
The -first planting should he of the early qu:ck maturing 
varieties, such as the Alaska, First and Best, which do 
3iot require supports. Then follow with the big wrinkled 
type, such as the Champfon of England, Telephone and 
Prize Taker, Alaska and Everbearing. These should 
be supported by hrush or poles and wires or strings 
along by the sides of them. In the Gulf coast country 
the Everbearing can be planted in December and fre- 
quently they will stand the winter and begin bearrng 
very early in March or April, sometimes earlier if the 
winter is mr.ld. Peas should be planted thick in rows 
about three feet apart or in douhle rows eight inches 
apart, cover two inches deep, 

Beans. 

Beans should be planted when all danger of frost is 
■over or if covered with loose hay r!n case of frost, they 
can be put out earlier. Bush beans should stand three 
or four inches apart in rows two feet wide or more, if 
plowed with a cnltivator. Such var:.eties as the wax, 
Stringless, green pod, "Wardwell's Kidney Wax. Plant 
every two or three weeks. Pole beans may be planted 
in hills but wider apart so poles may be set for them 
to run on. Beans can be planted in the late summer for 
a fall garden. So few people realize the necessity of 
a good fall garden. Beans should be covered one and one 
half inches or two depending on how the moisture is. 
Kentucky Wonder is a popular pole bean and one of the 
best varieties. Pole Lima beans should be planted 
around the fences, also butterbeans in the spring and 
especially late summer for fall use. The small speckled 
butterbean is more prolific than the limas, a few bunches 
about a trellis or on poles will bear a great quantity of 
heans for fall use. 

Beets. 

Beets can be grown in boxes as tomatoes or cahbage 
plants. Transplant to good fresh worked beds in the 
early spplng. Land should be very rich for beets. If 
the seeds are planted late they should be soaked for sev- 

— 23— 



eral hours or boiling water poured over them in the 
furrow and covered immediately. Two or three plant- 
ings should be made, to have early and late beets. Early 
blood turnip, Crosby's Egyptian, Cr'mson Globe are good 
varieties. 

Carrots. 

Seeding directions same as for beets. Carrots are 
rich in 'ron and should be more universally eaten. They 
are fine eaten raw, when young like radishes, many pre- 
fer them to radishes. 

Lettuce. 

Lettuce thrives best in cool weather so it should 
be planted "'n early spring or fall. Sow in boxes or cold 
frames in February and transplant. Head lettuce should 
always be transpanted to make it head well. Lettuce 
should be on very rich land. Lettuce will stand more 
freezing than headed cabbage. You can have loose leaf 
lettuce all the fall and a part of the winter, even in 
North Texas, if a bed is made by the house and kept 
watered and hay thrown over 't on very cold spells. Plant 
in rows and cultivate as cabbage, putting head lettuce 
twelve inches apart. Learn to grow and eat more lettuce 
for healths sake. Lettuce is very palatable when a little 
sugar is sprinkled over it and oT.ve oil with vinegar or 
lemon juice is used with it. 

Cucumbers. 

Land should be very rch, or a good plan is to d'g 
out good holes and put in well rotted manure and make 
a good hill for the seed. Plant hills three feet apart. 
Plant after danger of frost is over or start early in straw- 
berry boxes I'n the house, remove the bottoms and set 
out later. Bury a keg about half way down, fill with 
manure, pour water into the keg to soak out, frequently 
in this way cucumbers can be raised. Keep all old cu- 
cumbers cut off the vines. Cucumbers are very digest- 
ible if only salt is used to eat with them, in place of 
vinegar. They are fine chopped in salads. 

Kershaws 

Cultivate as cucumbers, only give twice as much 
space between the hills, sex feet. One of the best of 

— 24 — 



i 



garden products, easily grown, will keep all winter if 
put in a dry place, where they will not freeze. Both 
spring and fall crop can be grown In South Texas. 

Pumpkins. 

Pumpkins will grow most anywhere on rich land 
with plenty of moisture. Pumpkins are consi'dered ex- 
ceedingly healthful. Do not plant the old fashion kind, 
they are not so good and easily cooked as the Northern 
pumpkr'ns. Tennessee Sweet Potato, Mexican, and many 
other varieties are good and will cook in twenty-five 
minutes and are good even in the first of the fall as 
soon as ripe. Plant as kershaws in hills six or eight feet 
apart. 

Yard Peas. 

Plant after the ground is warm by trellis or fence 
Snap like beans while young. Pods grow two and three 
feet long, continue to bear all summer if watered. 

Tomatoes. 

To get an early crop started, plant in boxes or cold 
frames about eight weeks before Vme to put out in the 
garden. The young plants should be transplanted when 
two inches high to a hot bed if possible or cold frame, 
or another box, then when four to six inches h/'gh trans- 
plant again to flower pots or cans with the bottoms lose. 
In this way they are big and stockey plants. Set in 
garden in well prepared soil two feet apart. Tie to stakes 
such as need it. Better to keep pruned some that is the 
running kind. Remove all shoots starting in the axiles 
of the leaves. In the gulf coast country the vines may 
be cut back in August and the fall rains will grow them 
out again. Before the first freeze cut the vines down 
and hang in a house or cellar where they will not freeze. 
The tomatoes will keep ripening until they are all ripe. 
Chalk's Early Jewel, Dwarf Champion, Acme and Red 
Rock are popular varieties. Put out a few of the small 
red and yellow kind and you will always have some to- 
matoes, they are more sure. Always keep the ground 
well pulverized on top, tomatoes need lots of moisture. 

Radishes. 

Sow early in rows twelve or fifteen inches apart, 
cover one to two inches deep, sowing every two weeks. 
Icicle and White Vienna are popular varieties. 

— 25 — 



Aspanagasv 

I would suggest you get one-yescr-oTcT roots from- a 
reliable seed house and put them out about the first 
of March. Set in rows according to your space. Four 
feet is common, when cultivated with a plow. Make- 
furrows twelve of fourteen inches deep. Place in furrows; 
six inches- of well rotted manure, place on this four inches; 
of soil. Set plants in this and cover about two inches-. 
deep. Cultivate frequently first season. Don't cut tops 
off until after a killing frost in the fall,, never cut aspar- 
agus the first season and not too much the second. 

Swiss Chai'd, 

One of the very best of greens,, much like spinachi 
only larger leaves and stalks. Sow the seed in the 
spring, thin out as you use it. The stem of the leaves 
are much like celery and can be cooked like celery. 
Cut off in August all dead leaves and the top, and with 
the first rains it will soon come out and the greens are 
earlier than any other in the fall. 

Spinach. 

Spinach is one of the very best crops for greens 
and should be grown in the autumn and winter in the 
coast country and in the colder regions it may need some 
protection by throwing some hay or straw about it. It 
can be grown in canvas covered frames, where the 
climate is very cold. Sow the seed in rows the same as 
turnips, remove the entire plant for use, the largest 
first. The Savoy is most commonly used. 

Rhubarb. 

Should be grown by every body because of its 
health-giving qualities. Nothing better in the spring 
for making pies than rhubarb, and it is easily grown. 
Get plants from some seed house, six to a dozen plants 
is enough for one family, set three feet apart along the 
fence and manure heavily. Don't allow plants to seed. 
Treat about as you would asparagus. 

Peppers. 

Plant in boxes and transplant later to the garden. 
Set twelve to fifteen inches apart, cultivate as tomatoes. 
Bull Nose, Ruby King, Pimentos are the sweet kinds 
most commonly used. 

— 26 — 



(Garlic. 

GarFc is propagateci by separating the bulbs into 
the small bulblets and planting in rows 12 inches apart 
■and three to four in the row. Cultivate the same as 
-onions. Plant in the spring or early fall. Garlic is used 

for flavoring purposes. When pulled up, let lie in the 

sun until tlie tops are dry. 

Kohl-Rabi 

Resembles the turnip l)ut fhe bulla grows above 
the ground and can be cooked as the turnip or prepared 
with cream saucie as cauliflower. Plant in the spring 
or early fall, in rows and thin out to four inches apart, 

'Celery. 

Celery doesn't grow well, only in certain sections, 
Avhere tliere is plenty of moisture. For information on 
■celery growing read Farmers Bulletin 282 "Celery." 

Strawberries. 

The most uni'Versany nsed of all fruits, can be 
grown in almost any regular farming soil. There are 
many good varieties, the Klondike and Everbearing are 
among the best. In the coast country put out young 
plants in November. If tlie winter is mild tliey begin 
to bear in January. Make rows 18 or 20 inclies wide 
set plants about twelve inches in the rows. Always 
spread tlie roots well when setting the plants. Have the 
■ground well hedded up to give drainage, Iteep worked 
well until bearing good. Hay or straw may be put 
around them to keep the berries off the ground. Keep 
watered through the summer if you want young plants 
to set next season. The runners take roots and make 
new plants. The old beds can be left and worked out 
'for the next season leaving the plants thick and get 
more berries. They are more trouble to work in this 
■way. In the colder climates the plants will not beat 
until late spring. Cotton seed hulls are excellent to 
put around the plants to keep them from freezing. Ift 
the very cold climates, spring planting is better, bearing 
the second year. Black land will raise strawberries 
but it does much better to make a bed and put sand with 
the soil. To save space and for ornamental purposes 
hore 60 or 70 large holes one to two inches in a sugar 

—27— 



barrel, make a four or five inch square box with holes 
and set in the center of the barrel . Fill barrel with 
rich soil, setting a plant in each hole. Spread roots out 
good and pack the soil as you fill the barrel so it will not 
settle and pull the plants in the holes. Set plants as you 
fill the barrel because it is much easier and better. 
Fill center box with manure, pour water into this to 
water the plants every day or so. Set barrel in the 
yard near the water, for convenience. 

How to Bring Seed Up Quickly. 

After planting any kind of seed in furrows, have 
plenty of boiling water and pour along over them, raking 
the dirt over the seed quickly to hold the heat. After 
the day's washing has been done is a good time to have 
plenty of boiling water at hand. Seed will come up 
very quickly treated in this way, if the ground is soaked 
well. 

Dust Sprays. 

Often bugs and lice bother plants such as potatoes, 
turnips, melons, squashes, etc. Usually a small quan- 
tity of Paris green or London purple or powdered lead 
arsenate, will do away with such pests. Mix five or 
six parts of flour and a little lime to one part of poison, 
duPt on from a thin cheese cloth while the dew is on 
the plants. 

For Cifni-- Tr*- v. 

Citrus iiGcs frequently have scale on them. W.ish 
with a mixture of whale o'l soap. Strong solution 2 
pounds soap to one gallon water, mild solution 1 pound 
soa;j to six gallons water. A few teaspoons of coaloil 
added are helpful if t'lty are very bad. 

Ciumiuii tl»o ,Sii! plu.s. 

Every home should can the surplus of vegetables 
as well as the fruits. Use the cold pack method, it 
saves time and labor and insures better success. By 
cold pack method, I mean pack the stuff in the jars 
cold then cook. A wash boiler or tub can be used. 
Place wood slats or cloth in bottom of the boiler to pre- 
vent the heat from breaking the jars. Fill the jars with 
fruit or vegetables, pour in liquid until all the space is 

— 28 — 



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filled. Put caps and rubbers on but leave loose until 
after the cooking, remove the jars and tighten. Fill 
boiler with water about half or two thirds up on the 
jars. Place all the jars you can in the boiler so as not 
to touch each other, place cover on the boiler and cook 
the required time. Most vegetables such as beans and 
corn require more than one cooking. Write for bulletin 
No. B 26, A. and M. College, College Station, Texas, on 
canning. 

Peanuts. 

Peanuts will soon be used as universally as pecans 
in our daily food. Peanuts are very rich in protein and 
will fatten horses, cows, hogs and chickens faster than 
any other product we grow. They are just as good for 
people, only we have not learned how to use them so 
well as yet. Seventy-five cents will purchase or grow 
a bushel of peanuts and when ground into butter will 
make a good many pounds, which is good nourishing food 
and much cheaper than some other products not so near 
a complete food. Raw peanuts are fine for children 
to satisfy their hunger between meals, why not plant 
vacant lots in them? To make peanut butter roast, but 
not brown, grind in food mill, add salt to taste. Pack 
down in jars or bowl. Take out the quantity you wish 
to use and mix with cream or water, this gives it a bet- 
ter taste and dilutes it so you do not tire out on it so 
quickly. Only a small quantity of milk or water is nec- 
essary to thin it down. To grow, plant them in 2 1-2 
or 3 foot rows 12 to 14 inches apart in the row, two in 
a hole, on beds of loose fresh plowed soil. Open fur- 
rows and cover about two inches deep. Shell before 
planting. After the first working or two throw the 
dirt to the vines every time they are worked. The 
bpanisn variety is less trouble to dig. 

Miscellaneous Information. 

Some few things already said may be repeated, but 
they are vital points to be remembered. 

One of the biggest mistakes and more often the 
cause of failure to have a nice garden is too much 
ground rather than too little. Only put In a few beds 
at the time and keep them thoroughly worked and 
watered, if water is handy you will make more 
than on a large space, half cultivated. Nine tenths of 

—80— 



the people in the cities and villages have more gronnd 
than they can properly utilize. If your space is small 
study how to use it to the best advantage. In place of 
putting out a row of okra, put out only two stalks and 
keep them watered all summer, they will grow ten feet 
high and produce all the okra any family can use. A 
few bunches of Swiss chard watered all the summer will 
furnish an abundance of greens for a family. Other 
things may be done the same way and a small space 
made to do wonders. 

If your yard is packed and hard, use a tile spade or 
pick to tear it up the first time. Wet the ground 
thoroughly, then use a fork when the ground is dry 
enough to work. 

If your land is black and waxy, haul sand and 
spread over it. You will more than be repaid the ex- 
pense of it in vegetables. 

Have a pile of straw or hay convenient in the fall 
or early spring to throw over plants in case of a freeze. 
A garden can be carried far into the fall by a little work 
of this kind. 

Never leave your garden without peas in it for the 
last crop in the summer. Spade up very early even if 
dry for a fall garden. First ra'ns in September you are 
ready to plant. Even in cold climates you can have 
considerable garden by starting early. 

By all means spade your, land in the early winter, 
throwing it in ridges so the land can air. Get a'.l the 
air, rain and sunshine to It possible. Then you will 
have a garden in the spring. Repeat the spading once 
or twice, if possible, dur'ng the winter. 

Keep your mind on starting plants 'n boxes in the 
house in mid winter if you want to be an early bird 
in gardening. 

Always buy good seed or your time may be lost 
or you will be rewarded with a poor qual'ty of vegetables. 

Keep a, large box or a small pen in the corner of 
the garden to put all vines and trash to rot for fertilizer. 
Never throw such stuff away, the land needs it. 

Don't be afraid to start a garden because your yard 
is a sod of grass. So much the better, for in the soil it 
rots quickly, when turned down in the ground green. 

Only spray your garden late in the afternoon or at 
night with the hose. If you run water over the land, 

— 31 — 



cultivate as soon as it is dry enough to work, before 
a hard crust forms. 

Work the garden after each rain, with hoe or rake. 
Mever let the ground get hard about the plcints. If very 
dry and no water to use, rake the ground into a dust 
mulch and keep it so to bring the moisture up from be- 
aeath. 

When plant.ng seed in dry weather and the ground 
is dry, pack the dirt good on the seed with your feet or 
a hoe or plank, so the dirt will hold the moisture. 

Much space may be used for lettuce, mustard and 
radishes in the flower beds and not interfere with the 
flowers. 

Don't fail to read the copied articles of others' ex- 
periences in gardening in this book, it may help you to 
solve many of your problems. 

A number of Dallas gardeners own automobiles. 
One man says he drives home and works his garden, 
while other men drive to country clubs and play golf. 
He says he does not have much trouble imagining that 
his hoe is a golf stick and each clod of dirt a golf ball; 
that the exercise is much better and the energy ex- 
pended is not wasted. "Instead of putting golf balls in 
holes, I take from holes in the ground vegetables worth 
their weight in copper and nickel, if not in silver and 
gold." he said. — Dallas News. 

English peas were planted as a test; also cabbage 
sown, the last of January 1917 in Dallas, Texas. After 
several severe freezes and snow, the plants show no 
signs of injury on March 7th. The plants are up in fine 
shape three inches high. Think what th^s means to 
North Texas, that such stuff can be planted in mid- 
winter. Be certain to begin planting not later than 
January. 

Grouang Fruit iii the Yard. 

It is just as essential to have a good orchard as it 
is to have a good garden, and the very best place for 
one is the unoccupied space about the yard. The trees 
are somewhat protected from heavy winds and are 
handy to water, when needed. No family should be 
without a bountiful supply of fruit as well as vegetables. 
The trees will interfere very little with the garden 
and vegetables for several years, if the ground is very 

— 32 — 



J.33V2S 




rich even then they don't always interfere with the 
vegetables in a very hot c'.imate. 

Some kind of fruit will grow in all sections of the 
country. Find out from your neighbors who have goocJ 
feear'ng trees and nurserymen the kinds suited to your 
locality. 

Good seed fromi seedling trees can be planted, 
saving some expense and good results had. Good grapes 
and figs can be grown from cuttings gotten from good 
bearing^ varieties, and do as well as nursery stock, 
sometimes better. 

It will surprise you how many trees you can put 
out if all your space is properly utilized. Put pecan, 
pear and apple trees in the front and side yard, in 
place of worthless shade trees.. Peaches, plums and 
apricots and old fashioned persimmons in the back. 
Make trellises for grape vines about the windows and 
along the fences. Citrus fruits may be added in the 
gulf coast country. No nicer ornament can be put 
in the yards than oranges, grapefruit and kumquats. 

The very black, waxy land will grow fine peaches, 
plums, pears and Jap persimmons. In preparing the 
yard for trees, d-g large holes not less than two feet 
square, eighteen inches deep and fill with rich sandy 
loam soil, if possible. Use no manure about the roots 
of a young tree. If used at all put on top of the 
ground so it may leach down. Set the trees a little 
deeper than they were in the nursery row. Pack the 
soil good about the roots of the tree. Pour in several 
gallons of water, when soaked down, rake dry dirt over 
this to prevent a cake from forming about the tree. 

When very dry weather comes in the summer, rake 
back the dirt from the tree, making a basin; pour in 
five gallons of water. Return the dry dirt when the 
water has soaked in. Every ten days is sufHcient to 
water them even in very dry weather. Follow this 
method absolutely and you will lose no trees. Pouring 
water about them with the hose every day or so often 
ruins them. 

Keep the ground worked loose and shallow about 
the trees for two or three years. Work it deeper in 
winter than summer, being careful not to injure the 
roots of the tree. It is helpful in summer after water- 
ing a tree to put hay or weeds about the tit:,^ for emul- 
sion to help hold the moisture. 

34 



Tt IS very "helplul i"n dry weatlier to water trees 
■when bearing it you wish to have large fine fruit. A 
"well loaded tree requires much moisture. When trees 
are heavily loaded with fruit, it pays to remove some 
of it sometimes in order to have larger, finer fruit. 
Then the tree is not so heavily ta"xed. If you have old 
trees rake the dirt T5ack and pour a quantity of wood 
•ashes about them, it improves the fruit, especially apples. 

Orange Tre«s. 

No yard in the gulf coast conntTy should he without 
a few satsuma orange trees, where the thermometer 
«does not go below 16 degrees. The satsuma stands 
more freezing tlian the other varieties. They grow on 
'Old flat land when peaches and other fruits do no good. 
They laegin bearing at tliree years old and when five 
to six years old will bear from tliirty to seventy "five 
"dozen to the tree, and even more than that sometimes. 
Even in colder climates the trees could he protected 
"With canvas frames over them in winter. In extremely 
•cold weatlier a lantern could Tie placed under the canvas. 

Set the trees in early spring, cease to cultivate 
them in September, so tliey may go dormant. If they 
hegin growing in the late fall the shoots are tender and 
a hard freeze will kill them. Sow something ahout 
them to take up the moisture, as l)urr clover. Should 
the trees become infested with scale wash good with 
strong soap and a table spoon of coal oil to a gallon of 
water. 

<Grapes. 

There Is no otlier fruit so nice al30ul tlie place as 
grapes. Plant out hoth early and late varieties. Set 
them along the fences or make trellises for them. Care 
Tor them as you do the trees and you can have grapes. 
T. V. Munson, Denison, Texas is autliority for grapes 
in Texas. Different sections require different varieties. 
Fine grapes may be grown from cuttings. Set cutting ift 
good loose soil, take cutting eight or ten inclies long,, 
let one bud stand al)ove the ground. Set them six of 
eight inches apart in a deep furrow, pressing the dirt 
good and tight about them. Reset the following year. 
Order bulletin for .pruning and spraying. 



S5 



Jap Persimmons. 

When full of fruit are an ornament to any yard. 
They do well even in black land. The fruit is delicious. 
They stand the freezes as other fruit trees. The Ameri- 
can honey persimmon, by Munson is considered one of 
the finest. There are many other good varieties. Set 
out as other fruit trees. One on each side in the front 
yard is a good place for them. 

There is no finer fruit than the old fashioned per- 
simmon, not even dates surpass a good quality of them. 
Ard no other fruit is so easily grown, they require no 
care, only the planting of seed. Every place with large 
space should plant a few trees in the rich soil about the 
loc fence corners. Every boy has a good time where 
there are a few bearing persimmon frees and no place 
need to be w'thout them. Mr. C. L. Kidd, Teague, 
Texas, has a very fine orchard of a large size, and seed 
can be had from him. Plant tne seed in January, or 
they might be planted later by soaking them. Other 
seed, such as peaches, walnuts and pecans, should be 
planted in the early fall. 

Pears, 

T ut a few alongside of the house and in the front 
yard. They do well in most any section of the country. 
Two or three trees will bear several bushels when good 
size trees. Keefer is best suited for all purposes. Very 
good for eating if gathered and wrapped in paper and 
laid away until mellow. The Garhen is a fine eating pear 
but does not bear so well as the Keefer. Set pear trees- 
same as other fruit trees, but they don't require so much 
work. Very little cultivation suits the pear tree after 
the second or third year. 

Pecans. 

If everybody had put out good budded pecan trees 
the past 25 years, in place of the poor shade trees so 
many have planted, what a fortune we would have now, 
besides the luxury of the nuts and fine shade, they make 
a most beautiful and long-1'fe tree, with less insects 
to bother than other trees and do not cost any more to 
put them out. The budded pecan begins bearing at five 
and six years old. Only in the last few years people 
are being convinced they grow and do well almost any- 

36 



where. Induce your children to plant them about the 
place. Every farmer boy should plant out at least an 
acre. They could be worked along with other crops. 
They never interfere with stuff growing about them. 
The tap root supplies the tree nearly altogether. When 
they are bearing good the land is worth not less than 
one thousand dollars per acre. It can then be turned 
out and the income will be greater than any other pro- 
duct you could grow on the land. They cost no more 
than good shade trees. 

Plums. 

Plums do well in most all parts of the country and 
are easily grown. Put out as other trees. Popular 
var-eties: Happines, Gonzales, Burbank, Wild Goose, Ex- 
celsior, Abundance, and Japan. 

Figs. 

Almost everyone likes figs and they are easily grown 
and have no blooms to get killed, hence the crop is 
usually a sure one. Set them out near the house where 
moisture is plentiful. They require very shallow cul- 
tivation and that only the first year or so, when in the 
yard. They are usually grown from cutt'ngs. In the 
northern climate where they are easily killed, split the 
bark down from the limbs to the ground on two or 
three sides of the tree and let the sap out about No- 
vember. This does not hurt the tree at ail and all heal? 
over in the spring. Popular varieties for the Southern 
countries are Magnolia, Brown Turkish, Honey and 
Celestial. 

Peaches. 

Every yard should have a few good peach trees in 
it, early and late varieties. Peaches grow in most all 
sections if given proper attention. To economize get 
seed from seedling trees and plant them in the early 
fall. Fine peaches can be grown from good seed. After 
setting trees cut back very low so they may spread and 
shade the body of the tree to prevent the tree from blist- 
ering in the hot sun and borers entering the wounds 
The trees should be pruned some, if on very rich soil 
Popular varieties are Elberta, Mary Ross, White English. 
Fam'Iy Favorite, Belle of Georgia, Stenson's October 

37 



and Jack Bell, one of the very best. For the guTf coast 
section, get such as are adapted to that climate. 

Black Berries. 

Prepare your land early, make good beds for drain- 
age, five or six feet wide, set plants in the beds every 
two or three feet apart. Good plants may be had from 
old bushes or root cuttings may be taken from the 
ground of old bushes with well matured plants which 
are better than suckers from the old bushes. 

They form a better root system. The spring Is 
the time to put them out. The first year they will 
likely make more vine than a cane. The second year 
they send out strong slim shoots which bear a crop the 
following year. Cultivate shallow until fruiting, deep 
cultivation tears up the roots. The vine like canes of 
the first year bear the second year. After the crop is 
gathered it is best to cut out the bearing canes; they 
will die the following winter. Better to cut them out 
early, to give the new vines left more strength. The 
Dallas and Jordan are good varieties. 

Every home should raise berries if the space is 
Sufficiently large. The Himalaya is a good vine to put 
out for a trellis or fence. They don't bear until the 
third year. They grow and run so heavy, they have 
to be pruned back after beginning to bear. One vine 
bears many berries if properly cared for. 

Pruning Trees. 

After the first year, trees usually need some prun- 
ing. The tops need shaping and thinning. I believe 
the summer is the time to prune trees, the cut heals 
over and leaves no dead end of limbs exposed. 

Fertilizing Trees. 

As the trees begin to bear fertilizers may be applied 
very profitably. The amount to apply will be governed 
by the natural fertility of the soil. They need very little 
until they begin to bear. I have great faith in commer- 
cial fertilizers for trees when there is organic matter 
in the soil. If the land is devoid of humus, fertilizers 
should not be used until it is supplied with organic mat- 
ter. 



38 



Economy in the Kitchen. 

How to cut down the living expense account is no 
small problem with- the housewife. When most of the 
food can be grown at home, it is an easy task to set a 
good table with small expense, but if the greater por- 
tion of the products have to be purchased it is a more 
serious problem. Only by using low priced goods, con- 
taining a high percentage of food value and cutt-ng out 
useless varieties, can a substantial saving be made. To 
do this requires some study and work a1 the hands of 
the purchaser. The one in charge should know what 
foods run high in food value and are less in price than 
other foods of low value. Too little attention is given 
to the proper combination of two or three items of food 
for a meal and the elimination of such varieties as are 
not needed. Many good substantial well balanced meals 
can be gotten up very cheaply if the proper foods are 
gotten together. Too many women are worying and 
wearing themselves out with useless work cooking great 
varieties of unwholesome fancy sweets that could be left 
off to the better health of the family. Too many foods 
are prepared from recipes gotten up without regard to 
health or economy. Such concoctions, a large portion 
of them, are responsible for many of the every day 
ills so common everywhere. 

Teach your family to be contented with just what 
they need in the way of food and not what they think 
they must have. We are largely a set of stuffers, stuff 
all sorts of food and kn-'ck knacks at all hours, then 
want a. dozen different foods at meal time. It all costs 
money to say nothing of the doctor bills and puts you 
in an early grave. 

In the matter of economy every family should use 
large quantities of rice, hominy, beans, peas, and pea- 
nuts, they contain good food values and come a great 
deal cheaper than many other products of less food 
value. The peanut is destined to be one of our most 
useful art'cles of food. It runs very high in food value 
and should not be overlooked. The cost of a bushel of 
peanuts is insignificant compared to some other foods. 

It is poor economy to use denatured foods such as 
come that are put up 'n fancy cartoons. You pay a 
large price for cheap paper, also you are paying for that 

39 



which you don't get, some of the richest part of the food 
has been removed and sold for other purposes. 

Pride and lack of information are largely responsible 
for the use of such products as white flour, polished 
rice, and other denatured products. Wheat is a most 
complete food product. Whole wheat bread is the best 
and most nutritious of all breads. A great portion of 
every persons diet is bread. Truly "bread is the staff 
of life." Then if that is true, it certainly should be 
of the best and most nutritious kind. It has been shown 
that seven eights of the phosphorus and eleven four- 
teenths of the potash and lime contents of the wheat 
are removed in the milling of white flour. Surely nature 
did not intend for children to be fed this demineralized 
product. Whole wheat products yield materials which 
make strong robust and disease resisting men and wo- 
men. The one poor starving element, white flour, costs 
the same as the complete product. The whole wheat 
product is such a complete food one could live on the 
bread alone for a long period if necessary without serious 
injury, which you cannot do on the white product. 

Few stores carry anything except graham, which is 
usually a poor grade of white flour and brand mixed. 
The Burrus Milling Company, Fort Worth, Texas, han- 
dles a superior quality of whole wheat graham put up 
in twelve pound bags. If you have wheat wash it clean 
and dry and have ground on a corn mill or flour mill 
and not bolted. Wheat is a most complete breakfast 
food. Get the soft wheat and boil until perfectly tender 
serve with butter, salt, and cream. Cracked wheat is 
preferable when it can be gotten. 

Rice. 

Rice is probably the cheapest food that contains 
large food values that can be made to supply a large 
portion of our daily foods. The polished article makes a 
much more attractive dish, but the yellow unpolished 
rice is a much more satisfactory food. The continued 
•use of polished rice will lead to a disease called "Beri- 
beri," which is more or less common among rice eating 
races. More of such foods should be purchased in 
quantities. Rice seldom costs over 4 1-2 to 5 cents at 
the mill. Freight added about 5 3-4 cents per pound. 
A saving of from forty to sixty per cent. Order 100 

40 



jpouiids and divide it Tip with tlie neigliTjors. It can "be 
(had from the Bay City Rice Milling Co., Bay City, Texas, 
•or "Cabiness the Jlice MaJi" Katy, Texas, puts up the 
-Teal mipolished rice in any quantity. 

How to Have Eai'ly Vegetables. 

If you want vegetables at the earliest possible mo- 
anent, you must make a study of your particular garden 
plot. Latitude, altitude, exposure all affect tlie earliness 
of your soil; but the decisive .fa^tar is always its phy- 
.-sical condition. Wet, cold soil is weeks later than dry, 
sandy loam. Never walk :n your garden, dig in it, or 
handle it when wet. It will cake and harden in lumps, 
•Ground is exactly right for planting when it is moist 
and yet will crumble in your lingers like gingerbread. 
Do not plant until your ground reaches tShis condition. 
Plant as soon as it does. 

Your ground must be rich. If you can not get 
manure for it, buy a bag of complete fertilizer, contain- 
ing nitrogen, phosphorus and potash. One bag will last 
several seasons for a small plot. Buy a bushel or two 
•of lime. Save your wood ashes, it you have a fireplace. 
Make a rectangular pit, lined with boards atid covered 
"with a hinged flyproo'f lid. Here throw your kitchen 
waste to rot. Occasionally sprinkle in lime and fre- 
'Quently earth. Dig the resulting compost into your 
soil in spring like manure. Sifted coal as'hes will ligliteia 
.your soil if it is heavy and wet. 

Plant first, hardy vegetables, such as onions, lettuce, 
radishes, parsnips, carriots, peas, beBts, tnrnip^, etc 
A cold frame will hurry things along, but it isn't neces- 
sary. If you want onions early, take a small box — one 
that canned goods came in will do — put two or ttiree 
inches of earth in the bottom, stick it full of onion sets 
two inches apart each way, and tilt against the sunny 
wall of your house. At night and when cold covef 
with glass, tack on oiled paper, or throw a burlap over 
It. Glass or oiled paper can remain on permanently. 
Oil stiff paper such as a hardware man uses and tack 
on with strips of wood. Last year we put out such a 
box March 1st. The temperature was fifteen degrees 
above zero and two days later it dropped to zero. Yet 
when we set out our onions on April tenth, the box 
onions were over an inch high. The cold had not hurt 
them, and we had them to eat weeks before our garden 
onions were ready. Keep a box of soil in your cellar 
and It will always be ready for use. 

Lettuce can be sowed as early as the ground per- 
mits. We prefer the loose leaf kind, particularly the 
prize-head. It is far sweeter and more tender than 
head lettuce. We plant five-foot rows of it at ten-days 
intervals. This gives a succession until hot weather. 
Then we plant in a damp, shaded corner, with fair 
results. Ordinarily lettuce does poorly in warm weather 

41 



excepting Cos letfuce. In planting cover your seed with 
wet cloth or burlap. This insures prompt germinatiou. 
and protects the seed from birds. Remove burlap after 
plants are well up. Plant your rows twelve to fifteen 
inches apart. The lettuce will spread over the inter- 
vening space and render cultivation unnecessary after 
a short time. Thus you will have all the lettuce you 
can use for many weeks with practically no labor. In 
late summer or early fall sow a compact bed of lettuce 
broadcast- — say two feet square — and when cold weather 
comes build a board frame around the bed and cover 
with glass or oiled paper. Burlap can be added for 
very cold weather. Your lettuce will begin to grow 
before the snow is off the ground and you can eat it 
long before planting time. 

A very little trouble will give you potatoes weeks 
ahead of your neighbors. We keep a small, shallow 
box of sand in our attic. Late in February, or early 
:n March we cut our seed pieces and put them in this 
sand, which is kept moist and in a fairly warm room, 
with light but not sunshine on the box. Seed pieces 
should we'gh three to four ounces to give heaviest 
yields. We select perfect uniform potatoes for seed, 
and cut each potato into two pieces, dusting the cut 
surface with powdered sulphur to prevent evaporation 
of moisture. Put the sulphured side down. By plant- 
ing time our potatoes have sturdy little root systems 
developed. They can be lifted from the sand and put 
in the garden row without injury. We plant our po- 
t,atoes one feet apart in the row so we know exactly 
how many seed pieces to cut. If you have straw, lawn 
clippings, or other sim'lar material, mulch your potatoes 
thick with it. Your crop will be earlier and larger 
than it would be with cultural methods. 

Beans can be forced in sawdust or sod. Cut a 
square of turf with some earth adhering, let the earth 
dry properly, invert, and plant with beans two inches 
apart each way. Keep in a warm room. At planting 
time cut the turf into squares, each with a plant and 
set out in the garden. Be sure danger of frost 'Is past 
as beans are tender. For your first outdoor planting 
made about the same t'me, dip your beans in warm 
grease. If a cold, wet spell follows, this will save them 
from rotting. 

We sprout corn, also, spr'nkling the grains on a 
shallow pan of wet sawdust and placing near the kitchen 
fire. Start tho corn ten days or so before corn planting 
time, or about Way f rst. By careful handling, the little 
corn plants can be set out without injury. At the same 
time the first outdoor planting can be made. Other 
vegetables can be started in similar fashion. If one 
wishes them very early, and if you want prime vege- 
tables at the earliest possible moment, keep your soil 
r'ch and rush the plants along with stimulating fertil- 

42 




A few sample baskets of peaches from Mrs. R. A. 
Gilliam's backyard orchard, Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas. 
$60.00 worth were sold at wholesale, as many, or more, 
were canned, used and given away» 



izers. — From Ffcforiai Review hy Loufs and Mary Tlieiss-. 

There are so many families who have no cook book 
or good recipes for cooking vegetables, I am copying; 
some from the White House and Bulletin 256, U. S. 
Department of Agriculture, Bulletin 13 (peanuts) Uni- 
versity of Texas, Austin. 

The simpler the method of cooking vegetables, the 
better. Properly cooked vegetables are palatable and 
readily digestible. 

During the cooking of all vegetables the cover must 
be drawn to one s'de of the stew pan to allow the 
volatile bodies to pass off in the steam. 

All vegetables should be thoroughly cooked, but 
stop while the vegetable is firm. 

To Boil Cabbage. 

Have a large stew pan half full of boiling water, 
cut the cabbage into four, -parts, and pust it down into 
the water good. Add a teaspoon of salt, boil for twenty- 
five to forty minutes, according to age of the cabbage. 
Turn into a collander to dra'n for two minutes, season 
with butter, salt and pepper. ^^ 

Cream Cabbage. 

1 pint boiled mince cabbage; 1-2 pint hot milk; 
1 tablespoon butter; 1 teaspoon flour, 1-2 teaspoon salt; 
1-2 teaspoon pepper. Put the cabbage, hot m'lk, salt 
and pepper In a stew pan and on the fire. Beat the 
butter and flour together until creamy, then stir int^ the 
contents of the stew pan. Simmer ten minutes. Serve 
hot. 

Fried Cabbage. 

P'ace in a frying pan an ounce of butter and heat it 
boiling hot. Then take cold boiled cabbage chop fine, or 
cabbage hot cooked the same as steamed cabbage, put 
it into the hot butter and fry a light brown, adding two 
tablespoonfuls of vinegar. 

Turnips. 

The summer turnips when sliced will cook in thirty 
minutes. The winter turnips require from forty-fve to 
sixty minutes. 

Drop the slices into boiling water. Cook until tender 
then dra'n woM. Mash with wooden ve|,etable masher 
and season .^itii 'f;M ai^ : -niter. Serve i-. ••■ "e. 
Cari'ots. 

'^'arrets ar? vtry f no served raw v/ncn yoaa.x lii'<.* 
radishes. 

Scrape the carrots slightly: then cut into large slices. 
Put into a stewpan with salted boiling water, allowing 
a teaspoonful of salt for a quart of water and boil until 
tender. Drain, put in a dish and pour the white sauce 

44 



over them. Or the carrots may be boiled and drained: 
then put them baclt into the stew pan and for every pint, 
add one teaspoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of sugar, 
half teaspoonful of salt and one gil of water or meat 
stock. Cook over a hot fire until they absorb the liquid. 

Onions Boiled. 

Put into stewpan, scald two minutes; then turn off the 
water, pour on cold water, salted a little, and boil slow- 
ly till tender, forty or fifty minutes. When done, drain 
them dry, pour a little melted butter over them, sprinkle 
them with pepper and salt and serve hot. 

Onions Stewed. 

Cook the same as boiled onions, and when quite done, 
strain off all the water; add a tea cup full of milk, a 
piece of butter the sige of an agg, peper and salt to 
taste, a table spoonful of flour stirred to a cream; let 
all boil up once and serve in a vegetable dish hot. 

Onions Fried. 

Peel and slice, and fry them brown in equal quanti- 
ties of butter and lard or nice drippings; cover until 
partly soft, remove the cover and brown them; salt 
and pepper to taste. 

Squash. 

Cook when small and tender. 

Summer squash is very palatable cut in small slices 
and fried like egg-plant. 

It will cook in boiling water in half an hour. The 
cooked squash is mashed fined and seasoned wUh salt 
pepper and butter. Or when mashed fine put into fry- 
ing pan with butter or drippings and fry until browned 

Beets With Butter. 

Cover beets with boiling water, and boil until tender. 
When the beets are cooked drop them into cold water 
rub off the skin. Slice and season with salt and butter, 
serve at once. If the beets are old, slice when cold and 
put in vinegar. 

Beet Greens. 

Put into a stew pan, the young beets and tops, boil 
rapidly until tender, or about thirty minutes. Drain off 
the water. Chop and season to taste. 

String Beans With Pork. 

Cut half pound pork into small pieces, fry :n a s:cw 
pan until brown add a teaspoonful of flour; cook thor- 
oughly done; add two cups of hot water and a quart of 
boiled beans. Place the pan where the contents will 
cook slowly for a few minutes. 

45 



Boiled String Beans. 

Green beans should be bleached. To do this, wash in 
cold water. Drop into boiling water and boil rapidly 
for twenty minutes. Add a teaspoonful salt to the water. 
Turn into a colander with cold water poured over them. 
They are now ready to cook in any manner you desire. 

1 qt Beans 1 generous tablespoonful butter 

^ pt. Water 1 level teaspoonful salt. 

Blanch them. Drain and put into saucepan with the 
water, salt, and butter. Cook for ten minutes over hot 
fire, stirring the contents of the sauce pan from time 
to time. Serve very hot. If the beans are not tender, 
it may take longer to cook them, but be careful not to 
over cook them as it spoils the flavor. 

Dried Beans. 

All dried beans require the same preliminary treat- 
ment, no matter how they are to be finally cooked and 
served. 

Soak them over night, drain off the water, put them 
into a stew pan with plenty of water to cover them good. 
Let them come to a boil, then drain. If the beans are 
old, but a pinch of soda in the water they are soaked 
over night in, else in the first water they are boiled in. 

The scalded and drained beans should be put back in 
the pan with boiling water. Add salt to taste, cook un- 
til tender. Sauce may be added, or butter, which ever 
way they are to be served. 

Sweet Potatoes Baked. 

Wash and grease well before putting into the oven, 
bake for an hour or less, if the potatoes are small. 

Candied Sweet Potatoes. 

Cut boiled potatoes into long slices, place in a baking 
dish put lumps of butter on each slice and sprinkle with 
sugar. Some cooks add a little water. Bake until 
brown. 

Boiled Sweet Potatoes. 

Cut into slices, place in stew pan with water to cover 
them. Boil until tender. Pour off the water. Mash 
well, add sugar, butter and a pint of sweet milk. Beaten 
egg can be added, cook until thick. Serve this way 
or bake brown in a pan or dish. Pumpkin can be cooked 
in this same way. 

Corn On The Cob. 

Have water boiling hard, drop the corn into the water 
and boil only ten minutes, over cooking hardens it. 
Serve with butter. 

46 



Rice. 

Put the washed rice in the stew pan 1 cup full of rice 
to 2 % cups of water and teaspoonful salt. Boil with 
cover on for twenty minutes, being careful to not let 
it burn. At the end of th^.s time, put the stew pan on a 
tripod or ring and cover the rice with a fold of cheese 
cloth. Let it cook in this manner for an hour. Then 
turn into a hot dish. The rice will be tender, dry, and 
sweet, and each grain will be separate. Don't stir 
during the whole time of cooking. 

If a spoonful of butter is put on top for the second 
cooking it will be much improved. 

Swiss Chard. 

Swiss Chard is a most excellent green cook the same 
as other greens. The nice ribs of the full grown leaves 
may be cooked like celery. 

Green Peas. 

Put one quart of shelled peas in a stew pan and add 
enough bo'ling water to cover them generously. Place 
on fire, when they begin to boil, draw back where the 
water will bubb'.e gently, until the peas are done, cook 
with the lid pushed to one side. When done add teas- 
poonful salt and three tablespoonsful butter. Cook ten 
m-nutes more. If the peas are not the sweet kind, add 
a little sugar. 

Boiled Irish Potatoes. 

Put in water boil hard for thirty minutes. Pour off 
all the water and let the steam pass off. Mash well, 
adding salt and butter to taste. 
Potato Croquets. 

Two cups cold mashed potatoes, season with salt, 
pepper and butter. Beat up the whites of two eggs, 
and work all together, thoroughly; make into small 
balls, slightly flattened, dip them into the beaten yolks 
of the eggs, then roll in flour, fry same as fish balls. 

Okra. 

Put in porcelain kettle, boil until tender. Remove 
stems, butter, salt and pepper to taste. Okra is very fine 
battered and fried as oysters. 

Kershaw. 

Peal and slice. Put into stew kettle with enough 
water to cook. Boil until tender and drain. Mash well. 
Add butter, sugar and salt to taste. Cook a few min- 
utes. A cup of sweet milk can be added if desired. Boil 
down same after adding the milk, until it is thick. Ker- 
shaws are excellent baked, with sugar and butter over 
them, while baking in a hot oven. 

47 



Tomato Sauce for Me^s. 

Skin tomatoes, put on and cook half peck. Add 
several onions and green peppers, chopped fine. Add 
salt, pepper, cloves and spice to taste. A small quantity 
of vinegar adds to the taste. Cook down and put into 
fruit jars and seal. This is a most excellent mixture for 
meats. 

Cream Sauce. 

V2 Pint Milk, 
1 Tablespoon Butter, 
1 Teaspoonful Flour, 
y2 Teaspoonful Salt, 
% Teaspoonful Pepper. 

Heat the milk over boiling water; beat the butter 
and flour to a cream and stir into the hot milk. Cook 
five minutes, then add salt and pepper. This sauce is 
suitable for cauliflower, potatoes, carrots, etc. 

Salads. 

Nearly all vegetables can be made into raw salads and 
are more refreshing than whencooked. 

jCabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes and apples can be 
chopped together. Cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet corn, 
green peppers, or most any vegetables can be mixed with 
the addition of apples or bananas. When the mixture 
is made, add sugar, lemon juice, or vinegar, to suit taste. 
Most refreshing dishes can be made in this way for sum- 
mer use. 

French Dressing. 

1 teaspoonful vinegar, 

4 Tablespoonfuls Olive Oil, 
14, Teaspoonfuls Salt, 
% Teaspoonful Pepper. 

Put salt and pepper in the bowl, add a little oil and 
stir well; then gradually add the remaining of the oil. 
Stirring all the while. Last of all, stir in the vinegar, 
which should be diluted with water if very strong. 

A Most Excellent Dressing. 

2 Cups S'weet Milk, 
1 Cup Vinegar, 

1 Lump Butter, 
6 Eggs, 

1 Teaspoonful Mustard, 

2 Tablespoons Sugar. 

1 Tablespoon Corn Starch, 
1 Teaspoonful Salt, 
1 Dash Cyenne Pepper. 

Take all dry ingredients and mix well. Beat yolks of 
the eggs smooth. Add dry ingredients and beat good, 

48 



then add vinegar. Heat milk and butter, and stir the 
mixture in while hot. Cook until thick. Beat whites 
separate, stir in while hot to make the dressing light. 
This makes one quart put in a jar set away to be used 
when needed. 

Whole Wheat Biscuit. 

2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour, 

1 Rounded Tablespoon Shortening, 

1 Scant Teaspoon Soda, 

Vz Teaspoon Baking Powder, 

1 Tablespoon Sugar or Honey, 

1 Teaspoon Salt, 

Mix with sour milk as other bread, cook in old 
fashion holecake style. Biscuit dry out more than the 
cake. 

A most excellent cornbread can be made by using one 
third whole wheat flour, two-thirds meal. Mix as any 
other cornbread. 

Nut Bread. 

21/^ Cups of Flour.* 

2 Vz Teaspoons Baking Powder, 
1 Teaspoon Salt. 

1-3 Cup of Sugar, 

2-3 Cup of Milk, 

1 Egg, Well Beaten, 

1 Cup Chopped Roasted Peanuts. 

Sift flour and baking powder; add salt, sugar, and nut 
meats. Beat egg well, add milk to it and mix with 
dry ingredients. Put in pan and allow to stand ten 
minutes. Bake in moderate oven.- 

Peanut Biscuit. 

2 Cups Flour, 

3-4 Cup of Ground Roasted Peanuts, 
4 Teaspoons Baking Powder, 
1 Teaspoon Salt, 
3-4 Cup of Milk. 

Sift salt, flour and baking powder together. Add nuts 
and milk to make a stiff dough. Roll on a flloured 
board to about i/4 iftch thickness, cut and bake in a hot 
oven. 



*A11 measures in this and all other recipes are leve) 

measures. 

(These are convenient and good sandwiches for the 
lunch basket.) 

49 



Peanut Buns. 

Use the baking powder biscuit dough, the recipe for 
wh'ch is given below. Roll to about % inch thickness; 
cut into pieces about three inches square, place a table- 
spoon of peanut butter in the center; fold up the sides 
about it and bake. 

Baking Powder Biscuit. 

2 Cups of Flour. 

4 Level Teaspoons Baking Powder. 

1 Teaspoon Salt, 

2 to 4 Tablespoons Shortening, 
% Cup of Milk, 

Sift flour, baking powder and salt and put in fat. Add 
milk, stirring as I'.ttle as possible. Pat into shape on 
floured board, roll V^ inch thick, cut and bake. 

Peanut Milk Toast. 

Toast six slices dry bread. 

Butter toast with peanut butter. 

Make thin white sauce and turn over bread. 

White S<auce. 

1 Yz Tablespoons Flour, 

2 Tablespoons Butter, 
1 Cup of Milk, 

1/^ Tablespoon Salt. 
Put butter in saucepan, stir until melted and bubbling; 
add flour and salt and stir until well blended. Pour on 
gradually the milk, add'ng about one-third at the same 
time until well mixed, then beat until smooth and 
glossy. If a wire whisk is used all the milk maybe 
added at one time. 

Peanut Sandwiches. 

1. Shell and peel off inner skin of roasted peanuts, 
then chop very fine and stir quickly in mayonnaise dress- 
ing and spread between thin slices of bread. 

2. Shell and peel off inner skin of roasted peanuts, 
then chop very fine and spread them quickly on slices 
of buttered bread; sprinkle lightly with salt before putt- 
ing slices together. 

3. Shell and peel off inner skin of roasted peanuts, 
then chop very fine and mix with enough cream cheese 
to hold them together; season and spread this on good 
sized square crackers or bread with lettuce salad, or as a 
luncheon sandwich. 

4. Follow same directions for preparing nuts as given 
in 1, 2 and 3. Add enough salad oil to make a smooth 
paste; add lemon ju'ce in the proportion of 2-3 spoon 
of lemon juice to 3 spoons of olive oil. Salt to taste 
and use as sandwich filling. 

50 



Peanut Soup No. 1. ] 

1 V^ Pints of Peanuts, 
-3 Quarts of Water, 
1 Bay Leaf, 
V2 Cup Celery, 
1 Slice of Onion, 

1 Quart of Milk. 

Peanut soup is made like a dried pea soup. Soak pea- 
nuts over night in two quarts of water; in the morn- 
ing drain, add remaining water, bay leaf, celery and on- 
ions; boil this slowly four or five hours, stirring fre- 
quently to prevent burning, or boil fifteen minutes and 
place in fireless cooker over night. Rub through sieve 
and return to fire. When again hot add the milk and 
let the soup boil up; then season and it is ready to 
serve. 

Peanut Soup Xo. 2. 

2 Tablespoons Butter, 
2 Tablespoons Flour, 
4 Cups of Milk, 

1 Cup Roasted Peanuts, 

1 % Teaspoons of Salt. 
Run peanuts through food chopper. Make a th-n 
white sauce of the butter, flour, milk and salt as per 
directions given under "Peanut Milk Toast." Add 
chopped peanuts to the sauce. Bring to a boil and serve 
at once. 

Raked Peanuts. 

1 Quart Raw Shelled Peanuts, 

1/4 Cup of Molasses, 

1 Tablespoon Salt, 

% Tablespoon of Ginger. 
Blanch one quart of raw shelled peanuts by dipping 
in hot water until the skins can be rubbed off with 
the fingers. Soak over n'ght. In the morning boil for 
twenty minutes; add V^ cup of molasses, 1 tablespoon of 
salt, 14 tablespoon of ginger. Put in bean pot, and 
bake slowly for three of four hours until tender. Or put 
into fireless cooker for five to seven hours, and remove 
to oven for thirty minutes to brown done. 

Any baked peanuts left over may be rubbed through 
a sieve and used for making soup. 

Peanut Turnips. 

Sr.ce turnips in rounds, throw into rapidly boiling wa- 
ter or meat stock and cook until tender. Place layer of 
turnips in bottom of buttered baking dish, sprinkle over 
these chopped roasted peanuts, and pour over this peanut 
butter thinned w'th warm water to consistency of cream. 
Repeat until dish is filled. Cover with bread crumbs. 
Season each layer with salt and pepper. Bake in the 
oven for about fifteen minutes, basting every little 
while with peanut butter thinned with a little hot water. 

51 



Peanuts and Rice. 



3-4 Cup Uncooked Rice, 

1 Cup Chopped Roasted Peanuts. 

1 Pint Wli:te Sauce. 



Boil rice until thoroughly tender in salted boiling 
water and dra'n. Make a cream sauce, using one pint 
of milk, four tablespoons of butter and four tablespoons 
of flour. Heat the butter, stir in the flour, and cook a 
few minutes (be careful not to burn;) then add the 
m-lk, heated. Boil for three minutes and season with one 
teaspoon of salt. Put bits of butter in the bottom of a 
baking dish or pan, add about half the r'ce, a generous 
sprink.ing of peanuts ,and about ha'f the cream sauce. 
Repeat this, beginning w'th the butter, then the rice, 
cheese, and cream sauce. Cover with bread crums and 
brown in a hot oven. Serve at once. Where one is 
in a hurry or the oven 's not hot, simply add peanuts 
to the white sauce and turn this over the cooked rice. 



Potato and Peanuts. 



6 Medium Sizen Cold Boiled Potatoes, 

1 Cup WhUe Sauce, 

1 Cup Chopped Roasted Peanuts. 



White Sauce. 



2 Tablespoons Butter, 
2 Tablespoons Flour, 

1 Cup Milk. 

Cut cold potatoes into cubes and mix with white 
sauce, to which the peanuts have been added. Put 
in a buttered bak'ng dish, cover with bread crumbs, heat 
in oven until crumbs ase light brown. Serve in bak- 
ing dish. 

Brown Sauce. 

2 Tablespoons Butter, 
1/2 Sl'ce of Onion, 

3 Tab'espoons Flour, 
1 Cup Brown Stock, 
14 Tablespoons Salt, 
Vs Tablespoon Pepper. 

Cook onions in butter until slightly browned; remove 
onion and stir butter constantly unt'l well browned; add 
flour mixed with the seasoning, and stir until brown ; 
add stock gradually and cook until it begins to thicken. 



Peanut Chops. 



4 Tablespoons Peanut Butter, 

6 Tablespoons Cream, 

1 Egg, 

6 Slices of Bread, 

Cracker Crumbs. 

52 



Trim all crusts off the bread, spread the bread with 
peanut butter; cut each slice into three oblong pieces; 
beat the egg and' add the cream. Dip the bread into 
the egg and cream mixture and then into the cracker 
crumbs. Place in a greased pan and bake in a hot 
oven until brown. 

Pe(a)nut Cake. 

V4, Cup Butter, 

V2 Cup Peanut Butter Thinned With 

1^ Cup Milk, 

2 Cups Sugar, 

3 Cups Flour, 

4 Eggs, 

1 Cup of Milk, 

3 Teaspoons Baking Powder, 
Yz Teaspoon Salt. 
Melt butter, add peanut butter thinned with milk. 
Stir in sugar, add egg yolks, milk and flour and stir 
well. Beat egg whites and fold into cake. Bake in 
layers as a loaf. Frost. 

Coarsely ground peanuts may be added to white 
Mountain Frosting and used to ice a simple cake. 

White Mountain Frosting. 

1 Cup Sugar. 

1-3 Cup Boiling Water, 

White of an Egg, 

1 Teaspoon Vanilla or 

% Teaspoon Lemon Juice. 
Put sugar and water in sauce pan and stir to prevent 
sugar from stacking to pan. Heat gradually to boiling 
point and boil without stirring until syrup will thread 
when dropped from spoon. Pour syrup gradually on 
beaten whites of egg and continue beating until right 
consistency to spread. 

Peanut Cookies, 

2 Tablespoons Butter, 
V4: Cup of Sugar, 

1 Egg, 

14 Teaspoon Salt, 

1 Teaspoon Baking Powder, 

14 Cup Chopped Roasted Peanuts, 
14 Cup Flour, 

2 Tablespoons Milk, 

% Tablespoon Lemon Juice. 
Cream the butter, add the sugar and beaten eggs. 
Sift the flour and baking powder, add to the other 
ingredients. Then add milk, peanuts and lemon juice 
and stir until thoroughly m'xed. Drop from teaspoon 
on buttered sheets one inch apart and place a half 
peanut on each. Bake twelve to fifteen minutes in a 
slow oven. 

53 ■■ L : 



Peanut Candy. 

1 Cup Sugar, 

''■k Cup Chopped Roasted Peanuts. 

Heat the sugar in a hot oven or stir over the fire 
until melted. When it is melted move to the back of 
range and add peanuts, mixing them thoroughly with 
the syrup. Spread on a tin and press into shape with 
knives. (The tin does not need greasing.) Cut into 
bars at once, as it hardens rapidly. 

Peanuts are not indigestible if properly used. They 
have gained this reputation largely because improperly 
prepared and eaten in large quantities between meals. 
Peanuts are high in protein and consequently take the 
place of meat. Peanuts are high in fats and take the 
place of other fats. Peanuts are highly concentrated and 
should be thoroughly broken up before they reach the 
stomach. 

Percentage composition 25.8 protein 38.6 fat 22.4 
carborhydrates 2.0 ash, 9.2 water. 

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ 

♦ ♦ 

♦ TEN CENTS WORTH OF PEANUTS HAVE ♦ 

♦ A FOOD VALUE EQUAL TO ♦ 

♦ ♦ 

♦ 60 Cents Worth Steak, ♦ 

♦ 34 Cents Worth Milk, ♦ 

♦ 20 Cents Worth Cheese, ♦ 

♦ 18 Cents Worth Potatoes. ♦ 

♦ ♦ 

♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

Royal Whole Wheat Bread. 

2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour. 

1 Teaspoonful Salt, 

2 Teaspoons Shortening, 

2 Rounded Teaspoons Baking 
Powders, 

1 Cup Milk, 

4 Tablespoons Cut Raisins. 
Put flour, salt and Baking powders into bowl; mix 
well, add shortening rub in very lightly; add raisins and 
milk; mix to soft dough and drop with spoon in muffin 
t(ins. 

Peanut Butter Bread. 

2 Cups Flour, 

2 Rounded Teaspoons Baking 

Powder, 

1 Spoon Salt, 

1 Cup Peanut Butter, 
'■ . 1 Cup Milk, 

% Cup Sugar, 

2 Eggs. 

: 54 



Sift flour, baking powder and salt into bowl, add 

peanut butter and sugar and mix. Beat the eggs and 

milk together; add to the flour and mix well. Put 
into hot greased loaf pans and bake thirty-five minutes. 
Th's bread is best when a day old. 

Sunbeams Pumpkin Pie. 

1 Pint Pumpkin, 

% Cup Sugar, 

3 Eggs, 

1 V^ Cups Cream, 

1/4 Teaspoon Each Nutmeg 

Cinnamon and Ginger, 

1 Teaspoon Salt. 

All well mixed. Bake about forty-five minutes. 

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ 

♦ ♦ 

♦ LIST OF HELPFUL BULLETINS, FREE ♦ 

♦ FOR THE ASKING. ♦ 

♦ ♦ 

♦ From U. S. Department of Agriculture ♦ 

♦ Washington, D. C. ♦ 

♦ ♦ 

♦ 255 Home Garden. ♦ 

♦ 256 Preparation of Vegetables for the ♦ 

♦ Table. ♦ 

♦ 22 4 Sweet Potatoes. ♦ 

♦ 203 Canned Fruits and Vegetables. ♦ 

♦ 181 Pruning. ♦ 

♦ 157 Propagatian of Peanuts. ♦ 

♦ 154 Home Fruit Garden. ' , ♦ 

♦ 121 Beans, Peas Ect., as a. Food. ' ' Z ^ 

♦ 127 Insecticides. i ~ ♦ 

♦ 433 Cabbage. '' ♦ 

♦ 434 Onions. ♦ 

♦ 460 Frames as a Factor in Gardening. ♦ 

♦ 471 Grape Propagation and Pruning. ♦ 

♦ 642 Tomato Growing-. ♦ 

♦ 521 Canning. ♦ 

♦ 4 82 Pears and How to Grow Them. ♦ 

♦ ♦ 
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦4 

FROM DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, AUSTIN, 

TEXAS. 

32 A. B. C. Fruit Growing. 
15 A. B. C. Truck Growing. 

9 Insects. { 



55 



PROM AGRICULTURE COLLEGE, COLLEGE STATION, 

TEXAS. 

B26 Canning, Preserving and Pickling. 
1 Strawberries, Irrigation. 

GERMAN KALI WORKS, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA. 

Fertilizing, Peaches, 
Truck Farming. 
Fertilizing Strawberries. 

T. V. MUNSON & SON, DENISON, TEXAS. 

Authority on Grapes for Texas. • 

Texas Seed & Floral Company, Dallas, Texas. , 

H. G. Hastings & Company, Atlanta Georgia, 

For Seeds. 
I Stephens Nursery Company 

Excelsior Nursery Company, J 

Palacios, Texas, Citrus Fruita, 



66 



.»-s>«*^ 



Gardening Experiences 
of Others 

PREPARING TO LIVE AT HOIME. 



IMrs. Beatrice Riggan 



*^«' 



1 herewith send my little plan of preparing vegetables 
Tor home use. First consider the kind of soil, next 
preparing the land, planting the seed and cultivating 
the vegetables. 

Sandy land fertilized well with barnyard manure is 
•suitable for all kinds of vegetables Plow land early 
and fertilize it, then harrow to get the benefit of all the 
winter rains. February plow again for potatoes, beets 
and peas, then plant from four to 10 inches apart. Use 
the new kind of scratch harrow made for garden 
purposes. 

In March prepare the land for beans, tomatoes, cab- 
bage, radish, lettuce, mustard and turnips. Make the 
hotbed for tomatoes and cabbage south of a building. 
It should consist of a wooden frame put down in the 
ground about six inches, but some higher on the north 
side and filled with good soil. Moisten soil and p'ant 
seed in rows. Cover the whole with window sash or 
translucent oilcoth. I have had some of the earliest 
tomaloes this way. 

After beets have formed a. bulb loosen the soil around 
them so they can enlarge, also treat onions in the 
same way. Have a frame for the English peas to 
support them. If the spring is late ond cold cover 
all vegetables with leaves or straw to keep the ground 
warm and prevent weeds and grass from growing. 

Keep the soil loose for all vegetables and plow after 
each rain to keep the weeds and grass destroyed. 

For a support for the pole beans use posts at intervals 
along the rows, then fasten hog or garden wire on posts 
for the runners. One can gather beans so much easier 
than on bushes. I had vines in the spring 9% feet 
high and would gather over a tubful every other mornin^?. 

When you transplant tomatoes and cabbage moisten 
the bed and run a knife blade between the rows before 
moving the plants. Before transplanting punch a good- 
size splace in the soil for plants, then pour in water. Put 
tomatoes 18 or 24 inches apart and cabbage 18 inches. 
When tomato vines begin to put on fruit put in posts at 
intervals and use hog wire for support. Keep all 
suckers pruned out. 

37 



To I'.repare for the table while fresh gather vegetables 
in the evening and stand over night in cool water. 
Cook them early in the morning in a quantity of water 
with lid off of stewer and season to suit the taste. 

To prepare vegetables for winter use in liquid form 
fill jars full and put in two tablespoons of vinegar and 
one of salt to half gallon of vegetables, also a little 
Witter except for tomatoes. Then put jars in cold 
water in a boiler, if you haven't a canner, and boil 
from 10 to 45 minutes, depending on kind of vegetables. 
After boiling the required time put rubbers in hot water, 
Chen put on jars and seal. 

For beets boil till tender, fill jars and pour boiling: 
vinegar and sugar over same, proportioned to two cups 
vinegar and seven cups sugar for each gallon of beets. 

To keep the vegetables for winter use, such as beets, 
turnips, onions, sweet and Irish potatoes and all kinds 
of dried peas and beans, put in sand in a barrel in 
a dry place. This is the way to cut out the high cost 
of living, 

— Farm and Ranch, 



GARDEIV SAVES LIVI.NG COST. 



Z. L. Evans. 



Will give our plan of gardening to help keep down 
high cost of living. In fall or winter we haul and 
scatter a liberal amount of rotted manure and break land 
six to 10 inches deep. A few days before planting 
rebreak and harrow to have a loose but firm seedbed. 
We find that a bed too loose is about as bad as one 
too hard. 

Begin by planting cabbage, tomatoes, etc., in hotbeds 
and as soon after February 14 t\s weather will permit we 
plant onions, radishes, turnips, lettuce, English peas, 
etc. We plant Early Alaska and large Marrowfat peas; 
the early peas if kept picked will last till the late ones 
begin bearing. 

As the season advances we transplant cabbage and 
plant beans, squashes, etc., and as we thin the radishes 
we resow the beds so as to have a succession, and by 
the time the first are gone we have new ones coming. 

Owing to small size of garden we plant orka, pole 
beans and late snap beans, Lima beans, cucumbers, etc., 
in the fall awiay from the chickens. Our plan is to 
plant at the end of cotton rows and as we plow the 
cotton; we plow on through the truck patch, thus in- 
suring a cultivation of once each 10 days. 

Our aim is not only to supply immediate demand, but 
for future use and a surplus to sell; by following one 
crop with another and continuous planting we have 
vegetables from April till frost. 

58 



We "begin caiiii'mg as soon as we have enough ot 
vegetables coming in that can be put up this way. Put 
up catsup, chow chow, pickles, mixed sweet pickles, 
Itrout, pickle beets, canned tomatoes, beans, okra, etc. 

We raise from tour to eight varieties of peas, two of 
lima beans and a small soup bean, of which we have 
150 pounds threshed now, sweet potatoes, two crops 
of Irish potatoes, all crops for winter use; several 
hunches of onions; buy onion seed and raise the kind 
of onions we like; raise sets for fall use and plant 
seed for winter use, as they keep better. We have 
onions 12 months of each year. We plant White Elpaso 
onions and raise them as large as saucers. 

In spring and summer we always have vegetables to 
take to town. In winter sell onions, peas, beans or 
sets. For three years we have not bought anything 
in the way of peas, beans or potatoes, onions, cabbage etc. 

In planting a garden one should plant for winter 
use and be sure to plant enough and above all save it 
as it comes on, and then let those who did not, "howl" 
about hard times. 

I am called a crank. Perhaps I am. After livin*? 
three years in West Texas from paper sacks and tin 
cans. 

It is a pleasure here where one can raise the stuff to 
see it grow and know we are eating the best and freshest 
vegetables to be had. 

Aside from the garden we have about one-fourth acre 
of blackberries, dewberries, raspberries, gooseberries, 
and Giant Himalaya berries, all of which will bear next 
year. 

Franklin Co., Ark. 

— Farm and Ranch 



HOME GARDENING. 



Mrs. C. R. Stephenson. 

It is with a feeling of great satisfaction that I express 
TOiyself on the subject of gardening. I can 
conscientiously say the brightness of my life 
has been brought about by watching my 
garden grow. It has inspired me with 

a feeling akin to the sublime and beautiful, and placed 
me "nearer to Nature's heart." I am past 60 years 
of age and I believe outdoor exercise has been an elixir 
of life to me. It has prompted me to arise early with 
the distinguished bird, which has the credit of catching 
tiie worm. 

I have gardened all seasons of the year. In early 
spring I plant my lettuce inside of a frame sufficiently 
deep to allow full growth of the plants and stretch a 
canvass over the frame, the same canvas ufcd by paper 

59 



hangers. It serves to keep out the winter winds and 
lets in the sun and rain. It is surprising to see the 
rapid growth when it is cold enough to enjoy a fire. 
I have also had lettuce In mid-winter, planted in the 
open. There was a pest called "chick weed," which 
grew as a kind of protection to the lettuce. Such 
heads I never saw before. They were the size of a 
half- gallon cup; could be handled, in slicing, like cab- 
bage, and much tenderer. I am given great credit 
for being succescful with lettuce. Last winter I treat- 
ed it with canvas and planted a paper of cabbage seed 
with it In February I transplanted the cabbage, though 
it was not an early variety, but the heads were simply 
enormous. 

I like gardening and I am vsiy caieful not to treat 
it as some pfople jo their cLii'irtn- — plenty of food and 
watar, but lack of cuitivution. 

There is something fanciful about the work — the fasci- 
nation overcomes the irksome part of it. I seldon have 
a plow iii my garden. I begin early with a common 
pitchfork and use it as a spade, enough for each planting, 
and the results are charming. The cultivation of 
asparagus is both pleasing and profitable, as it comes in 
with the earliest vegetables. 

I confine myself to a small amount of ground and 
work it well. I get as much off of what looks like 
a miniature garden as others do off of twice the amount 
of ground. Experience leads deeper into the art of 
outdoor life. If the garden becomes tiresome change 
off to yard culture. I tie the tops of the young ever- 
green together and trim underneath with shears. On 
gala nights, hang Japanese lanterns in them. It is a 
reminder of the way the twig is bent the tree is inclined. 
Cedars with wild smilax make pretty yard growth ii 
trailed in the same way. 

I find the two extremes for planting vegetables — 
that is, very early and very late^— is the most profitable. 
At Christmas I try for the greatest variety. Curley must- 
ard and split radishes for garnishing. It is a great 
luxury. The advantage we have in this sunny Southern 
clime, a God-given privilege, to sow and to reap — what 
would be an endless expense — say nothing of the im- 
pcssibilities in other countries. 

I sow my seed by the daylight fair 
From Nature's generous hand ; 

I reap the harvest rich and rare 
In this glorious fertile land. 

Farm and Ranch. 



60 



THANKSGIVING FEAST COST 27C; GARDEN SECRET. 



Home-Grown Foodstuffs Solves High Price Problem for 

Dallas Man. 



To The Evening Journal: 

I have been reading with much interest the recent 
pro and con letters on the cost of living. It depends 
en whether what I write interests you, and if you will 
call en the Rev. G. W. Daniel at the Business Men's 
League, 908 Main street, he can personally verify the 
story of the back-yard Thanksgiving feast, at which he 
was the guest of honor. 

This feast, which fed two men, one woman and two 
hearty children, consisted of eighteen items and was 
produced with a cash outlay of 2 7 cents. There was 
enough left over to feed three more people. 

We have a back-yard garden, 50x60 feet, which pro- 
duced most of the things not purchased for cash. New 
potatoes of good size, dug the day before from two 
t.-st hir,s, were used. Baked sweet potatoes, turnips, 
lima beans, tomatoes, green onions and celery (yes, sir! 
celery, raised in Dallas black dirt) were on the bill of 
fare. The corn that supplied the muffins also was back- 
yard raised, and the meal ground on the grinding disc of 
a 5 cent food chopper. The flour which made the 
whole wheat bread and the fruit cake also was ground 
in like manner at home from Texas wheat. 
Also Raises Rhubarb. 

Then there were sweet potato pie and rhubarb pie from 
rhubarb also grown in our back yard. Although we 
are told you can't raise rhubarb here, it is a fact that 
we have gathered thirty-six pounds from twelve square 
feet of ground since July. They were from seed plants 
raised since May 1. At the present market price is 
worth 3 7 cents per square foot, or at the rate of — ? 
per acre. 

The turkey was hamburger roast made from one- 
quart pound of pecan meats, whole wheat flour and a 
few other ingredients. We use this often and find is 
absolutely satisfactory. Ask the visitor about it. 

Other things we had were rhubarb sauce, gravy, but- 
ter, native persimmons, grapes supplied by the visitor 
and a homemade blend of grain coffee which a visitor 
could scarce tell from genuine. 

There would have been strawberries, but the freeze 
of a few weeks ago killed the young berries. Yes. 
we can raise strawberries in our back yard — black 
land. In fact we gathered thirty-two quarts from fif- 
teen square feet from^April 3 to July 15, 1916. 

61 



Home-GroAvn Pigs. 

Oh, yes, I almost forgot: We also had fig preserves 
made from figs gathered from trees that were grown — 
every inch from the ground up — since May 1 this year 
from root cuttings which were set in April. The fruit 
began ripening in September. 

We are only poor tenants on a rented place and always 
have raised a garden. 

How we usually make $100 or more truck on 50x60 
feet was told in The Dallas News over a year ago. 

Now the advice that is being given the poor man to 
raise a garden to reduce the cost of living would be 
excellent if some philanthropist would provide these 
would-be gardeners with the "knack" and knowleage 
for doing the right thing at the right time. Of those 
who made the earnest, honest effort in 1916, I dare say 
90 per cent failed for want of knowing just how to suc- 
ceed. The general directions found in the garden col- 
umns of magazines and in seed catalogues or on seed 
packages may be all right in some cases, but for our 
local climatic and soil conditions nothing will do but ex- 
perience born of work at practical gardening. 
Dig, Gardeners, Dig! 

And right here, let me give those who want a 1917 
garden a piece of sound advice: Did, dig deep, say 
twelve or fifteen inches and do it now. That is, do it 
this month. It may be true that you know of someone 
who had a good gaa-den on April-dug ground, but 
where one succeeds, twenty will fall. I have been at 
it over twenty years and have tested it thoroughly both 
ways all along, even this year, but henceforth I shall 
never make any more gardens on spring-dug or plowed 
ground. 

It seems to me that one of the mjost philanthropic and 
worthy things to be done would be, in some way, to 
devise a plan to correctly instruct the hundreds who 
might be willing to learn how to utilize their own back 
yard or near-by vacant lots. I myself am going to put 
in two or three vacant lots for 1917. 

THOMAS. 



GARDEN ON RENTED LAND. 



By Mrs. C. B. Beck. 

I live in a rented house, and have, perhaps, a fifth of 
an acre around the place that I cultivate. The land is 
thin sand, badly infested with nut grass, and not at all 
the kind of soil one would choose for a garden spot. 
Having no better, however, I determined to make the 
best of what I had. When I moved to this place in 
September, 1914, the garden spot was a veritable jungle 
of weeds. I set to work, and with the help of the chil- 

62 



drcn socn disposed of the weeds. I then had the land 
plowed and planted in turnips, but owing to a dry spell 
at that time my turnips did not come up and my fall 
garden consisted of a few rows of shallots. 

I started my spring garden on March 17th by planting 
in a cold frame my tomato seed, and a few days later I 
planted sweet pepper seed. I was obliged to depend 
on commercial fertilizers, but from a nearby strip of 
woodland I had my little boys, aged seven and ten 
years, bring leaves and pine straw and scatter over 
the garden before having the ground plowed. I had 
broadcasted over it 100 pounds of cotton seed meal and 
100 pounds of 16 per cent acid phosphate. During the 
winter whenever I removed the ashes from the grate or 
stove I scattered them at once on my garden spot. 

During April I planted sixty hills of Kentucky Wonder 
pole bepns. planted Lima beans around all the fences, 
thirty-six hills of cucumbers, a dozen hills of squash, 
eight or ten rows of okra, and bedded a few sweet po- 
tatoes. 

On May 10th I commenced setting out tomato plants, 
Livingston's Magnus. Of course I had to do my garden 
work at odd times, as I had my house work to do, be- 
sides cooking and sewing for five children, doing most 
of the laundry work, looking after a flock of chickens, 
and running an incubator. On May 28th I planted my 
last tomato plants, 300 in all. I had about sixty Ohio 
Crimson sweet pepper plants. On June 10th I planted 
corn between each alternate row of tomatoes, for a 
few rows. On June 30th I planted sweet potato slips 
at random all through the tomato patch. My corn 
flourished beautifuTy, until July 2d, when we had a 
rain, followed by daily showers for some time. The 
corn was drowned and turned perfectly yellow. I scat- 
tered a handful of lime around each stalk of corn and it 
actually regained a nice green color, and I gathered 
over 100 ears of nice green corn for the table. 

I worked my garden entirely without help, using only 
a garden hoe and a rake. I gathered 964 pounds of 
tomatoes, eight bushels of sweet potatoes, fifty quarts of 
Lima beans. I had orka until frost, hundreds of cu- 
cumbers, and quantities of snap beans, squash and sweet 
pepper. I raised a nice shoat, that dressed about 60 
pounds, entirely on scraps from the garden and sweet 
potato leaves, and finally fattened it on small sweet po- 
tatoes. Besides this I canned over 2 00 cans of fruit and 
vegetables and put up several dozen jars of pickles and 
preserves. I spent but little more than $5.00 in actual 
cash on the garden, and counting everything, including 
my own work at ten cents per hour, I cleared over 
$20.00 on my garden, and I am only a woman who 
weighs less than 100 pounds. Columbus, Ga. 

— Southern Ruralist, Atlanta, Ga. 

63 



T. D. Lemons, who lives at 5527 Oleander street, Park- 
view, says to The Evening Journal: 

"I am reading with much interest the articles and 
dicusssions appearing in The Evening Journal relative 
to the cost of living and what a person can 
live on comfortably per day. 

"I have a little garden plat on my home lot, where I 
this year raise an orka stalk that grew to be eleven feet 
eight inches high and that yielded quite abundantly. A 
second stalk did not grow quite so tall, but it put out 
more branches. From this stalk I gathered 420 pods 
of edible okra, cutting the pods each day, which I find 
the best way to get best results from okra. 

"My garden is but 40x40 feet, but on it I raised enough 
vegetables, tomatoes, peas, onions, lettuce and beets, be- 
sides the okra I have mentioned to feed my family the 
last spring and summer, there being six of us. We 
had some snap beans and some Irish potatoes, but these 
do not do well on black land. What I have done others 
can do if they will try, and a good garden is fully one- 
half the living for four or five months. In the fall the 
same ground can be planted to turnips, and this vegetable 
with the greens it affords supplies no small measures 
of the needs for a good dinner. 

"With a, little garden and a few hens we can become 
very independent of the grocery stores. The garden 
should be well fertilized and the hens will supply a 
good portion if not all of this. Then a few hours work 
at needed times and you have met and conquered to a 
large extent the problem of the hour. 

— Evening Journal. 



FALL IRISH POTATOES. 



Logan County, Arkansas. 
Farm and Ranch: 

It is not easy to germinate seed and make a fall crop 
of Irish potatoes with ordinary early crop seed. There 
are exceptions, but as a rule it is a waste of time to plant 
early crop varieties for fall crop. At least this is our 
experience. 

We plant an exclusive fall crop called Lookout Moun- 
tain Irish potatoes. These will not make the spring 
crops under any conditions, but seldom fail making crops 
in the fall. We prepare our land far in advance of 
planting time in order to insure at least some moisture. 

When we are ready and the time comes we plant 
about July 15. We dump a bushel or so at a time into 
a large tub partly filled with fresh well water; cut the 
potatoes out of the water same as for the spring crop. 
In the meantime we rub off any sprouts that may have 
started. After the potatoes are cut we sack them and 

64 



give the cut potatoes in tlie sacks several liberal shower- 
baths. 

This wetting process is solely for the purpose of tak- 
ing the wilt or shrivel out and to make the potatoes firm 
again, so they will come to a stand rain or shine. We do 
all the cutting in the afternoon and plant the next morn- 
ing in a fresh furrow rather deep. Cover at once with cul- 
tivator with 14-inch sweeps attached, a row at a time. 
We have tried this plan two years already and find it 
works like a charm. We never fail to secure good stands 
and excellent crops. This wetting process in con- 
nection wth the strictly fall-crop variety named is the 
secret of our success. 

To those in the South who would make fall-crop po- 
tatoes we say treat as above outlined. The wetting 
process is to take the wilt out and is very important. 

J. M. SUGG. 



VELVET BEANS IN COCO GRASS. 



Lamar County, Texas 
Farm and Ranch: 

I am using velvet beans this year to kill nut grass out 
in my m-arket garden where in some places it forms a 
dense sod. I also have a large part of my corn crop 
planted n velvet beans. They make a tremendous growth 
of vine so dense as to cause the nut grass to rot. They 
are much better than cowpea for pasturing in fall and 
winter and add a large amount of humus to the soil as 
well as a big store of nitrogen. 

I have been gardening here nearly 2 5 years and have 
tried a number of lima and butter beans and will say 
really every intelligent gardener knows the large limas 
are a failure in most parts of the South. Word's im- 
proved lima is about one-third or more larger than the 
Henderson and is one of the best for Texas. It is a bunch 
variety. The common small varieties of pole butter beans 

are best here. 

F. CLARKE. 



LATE GARDEN. 



A. A. Claud. 



Any one can have a garden in the late spring and early 
summei, but to have a garden in the summer and fall 
is not so easy. The great trouble is the lack of moisture. 
It requires moisture to insure summer and fall vegetables. 
To obtain it two things are required; some kind of water 
supply for irrigation, or a thorough and continuous cul- 
tivation fo the soil beforehand to hold the moisture in 
the soil for this purpose. 

65 



It requires frequent stirring of the soil to retain the 
water in tlie land; there must not be any vegetation 
grow to any length of time. Those who have not tned 
this continuous working of clean land will be surprised 
to find the moisture so near the surface. One deep 
plowing is sufficient, but a mulch must be kept over the 
sui lace. 

I will not attempt to advise what to plant. Everybody 
knows what he likes. The essential thing is, as before 
stated, moisture first, tillage before planting and 
after; next of importance is getting seed to germinate 
and live. 

Sometimes when it has been hot and dry I have run 
a very wide solid sweep shallow so as to push the soil 
back from the row, then make the furrow for planting 
with small plow or pointed garden hoe. Sow seed im- 
mediately and get on row with both feet, thoroughly 
tramping every inch, dragging in soil with foot. After- 
wards go over row with garden rake, leaving a light 
mulch to prevent baking or hardening soil. 

Another good way to get a stand of such vegetables 
as turnips, radishes and cabbage is to open with bull- 
loague and cover with same, furrow on both sides. Let 
stand only one day and two nights, then drag off 
ridge. Other kinds of seeds requiring longer time should 
not be dragged so soon. 

I produced turnips last year when there had been 
no rain for months when planted; had the only turnips 
on this market until after my crop was sold. 

Let everybody strive for all-the-year garden. It 
will be of immense value in this time of high cost of 
living. 

One more point and I am through, and that is, don't 
use any fertilizer on your summer garden, or fall garden 
either, if your land is average. If you do, put it on in 
January or February. 



City people do not eat enough fruits and vegetables. 
Meat, pastry and foods rich in spices, sauces, etc., are 
likely to be injurious when eaten to excess. The daily 
diet should have some fruits and vegetables for vari- 
ety and for efficiency. The high cost of marketing has 
caused the city consumers to reduce their consumption of 
fruits and vegetables. Yet the city consumer, perhaps 
more than any class connected with marketing produce, 
is responsible for higher prices. As a rule the city 
consumer expects too much service, much of which is 
unnecessary. 

— Farm and Ranch. 



66 



INDEX. 

City Lot Gardening 3 

Utilization of Waste Space 4 

W. M. Teal's Experimental Garden 5 

Pin Money for the Boy or Girl 6 

Youthful Gardeners 7 

Earn'ng Pin Money by Selling Vegetables 7 

Small Farms vs. the City Lot Garden 8 

Mrs. Henry Pietsch's Garden 9 

A Recent Picture of Salmon Brown 9 

Cultivating a Taste for Vegetables 10 

W. M. Teal's Back Yard 11 

Who is at Fault? 12 

Preparation of the Soil 13 

Fertilizers 14 

What to Plant, When and How 15 

Tools for Garden'ng, Transplanting 16 

W. M. Teal's Experimental Garden 17 

Sweet Potatoes, Onions 18 

Irish Potatoes 19 

Squashes, Okra, Corn 20 

W. M. Teal's African Pea Patch 21 

Cabbage, Collards 22 

English Peas, Beans, Beets 23 

Carrots, Lettuce, Cucumbers, Kershaws 24 

Pumpkin, Yard Peas, Tomatoes, Radishes 25 

Asparagus, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Rhubarb, Peppers.. 26 

Garlic, Kohl-Rabi, Celery, Strawberries 27 

How to Bring Seed up quickly. Dust Sprays, 

For Citrus Trees, Canning the Surplus 28 

Fruits and Vegetables 29 

Peanuts, Miscellaneous Information 30 

Growing Fruit in the Yard 32 

Utilization of a Small Space 33 

Orange Trees, Grapes 35 

Jap Persimmons, Pears, Pecans 36 

Plums, Figs, Peaches 37 

Blackberries, Pruning Trees, Fertilizing 38 

Economy in the Kitchen 39 

How to Have Early Vegetables 41 

Canned Fruits and Vegetables 43 

Useful Recipes 44-54 

List of Bulletins 55 

Gardening Experiences of Others 57—66 



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